ROMAN    AND    MEDIAEVAL    ART 


ROMAN    AND   MEDIEVAL 


ART 


BY 


W.    H.    GOODYEAR,    M.A. 

AUTHOR  OF  "ANCIENT  AND   MODERN   HISTORY,"    "A   HISTORY  OF 

ART,"   "THE  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   LOTUS,"   "RENAISSANCE 

AND   MODERN   ART,"    ETC. 


REVISED  AND  ENLARGED,    WITH  MANY  NEW 
ILLUSTRATIONS 


Neto  gorfe 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON  :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
IQIO 

Ali  rights  reserved 


6-6 


COPYRIGHT,  1893,  1897, 
BY   FLOOD  &  VINCENT. 


First  published  elsewhere.     Reprinted  November, 
igoo;  July,  1905:  February,  1906;  April,  1909; 
March,  1910. 


Berwick  &  Smith,  Norwood,  Mass..  U.S.  A 


INTRODUCTION. 

IT  is  a  pity  that  the  word  "art"  carries  with  it,  to  a 
person  not  interested  in  the  subject  or  not  versed  in  its 
history,  a  suggestion  of  luxury  and  of  superfluity,  as  con- 
trasted with  the  utilitarian  or  the  practical.  Where  this 
possibly  derogatory  tinge  of  meaning  is  not  suggested, 
there  is  generally  at  least  a  feeling  that  the  matters  which 
the  word  calls  up  are  those  of  interest  to  the  specialist  in 
design  rather  than  to  the  world  at  large.  People  who  are 
supposed  to  be  interested  in  "art"  might,  according  to 
this  view,  possibly  not  be  interested  in  literature  or  in  his- 
tory. Contrary-wise,  people  interested  in  history  or  in 
literature  might  possibly  not  be  interested  in  "art." 

It  is  true  that  in  recent  centuries,  those  namely  of  recent 
modern  history,  the  arts  of  painting  and  sculpture,  at  least, 
have  become  mainly  matters  of  luxury,  and  that  as  arts  of 
popular  education  and  instruction  they  have  been  displaced 
by  printed  books.  Hence  the  difficulty  of  making  imme- 
diately apparent,  before  the  subject  itself  has  been  opened 
up,  that  a  history  of  art  is  not  so  much  a  history  of  the  arts 
of  design  as  it  is  a  history  of  civilization.  But  if  this  point 
is  not  apparent  in  advance,  it  is  notwithstanding  the  point 
which  in  recent  years  has  drawn  more  and  more  attention 
to  the  subject,  until  it  is  beginning  to  figure  as  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  the  philosophy  and  knowledge  of  general 
history. 

As  soon  as  history  ceases  to  be  conceived  as  a  series  of 
disconnected  national  chronicles,  as  soon  as  it  begins  to  be 


iv  Introduction. 


conceived  as  a  sequent  evolution  of  races  and  of  epochs — 
which  has  been  unbroken  in  continuity  since  the  time  of 
the  Chaldeans  and  Egyptians  down  to  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury— the  history  of  art  appears  as  a  study  of  the  first  im- 
portance. This  is  because  it  deals  with  the  now  visible 
relics  of  the  past ;  not  only  with  buildings,  statues,  reliefs, 
and  paintings,  but  with  fabrics,  utensils,  coins,  furniture, 
and  all  the  accessories  of  daily  life  ;  for  in  historic  periods 
all  these  things  were  given  an  appropriate  artistic  treat- 
ment and  setting  forth.  As  revelations  of  the  life  of  a 
nation  or  an  epoch  these  relics  appeal  to  the  imagination 
because  they  appeal  to  the  eye  and  assist  each  student  to 
picture  the  past  to  himself.  The  student  is  no  longer, 
then,  dependent  on  the  descriptions  and  accounts  of 
another  student ;  he  becomes  himself  an  independent  his- 
torian, for  whoever  evokes  in  imagination  the  life  of  the 
past  deserves  this  title.  The  history  of  art  has,  moreover, 
especial  value  for  a  true  philosophy  of  history  in  that  it 
forces  the  student  to  subordinate  the  history  of  nations  to 
the  history  of  epochs.  The  grand  divisions  between  the 
successive  epochs  of  the  ascendency  of  the  ancient  oriental 
nations — of  the  Greeks,  of  the  Romans,  of  the  Germanic 
races  (the  Middle  Ages),  and  of  the  Italians  (the  Renais- 
sance)— are  only  seen  distinctly  when  the  history  of  art  is 
called  in  evidence.  As  regards  the  epochs  treated  by  this 
work,  those  of  the  Romans  and  of  the  Middle  Age,  the 
student  must  judge  from  the  book  itself  how  far  a  general 
knowledge  of  historic  life  and  civilization  is  involved  in  the 
topics  treated. 


CONTENTS. 

PART  I.— ROMAN    ART. 

Chapter.  Page. 

I.     THE  PREHISTORIC  AGE 17 

II.     EARLY  ITALIAN  ART 24 

III.  THE  EARLY  ROMAN  ART 57 

IV.  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  EMPIRE  ...  63 

V.  GENERAL  REVIEW  OF  THE  ROMAN  ART  .  72 
VI.     ROMAN  ARCHITECTURE  AND  PAINTING  .    .  78 

VII.     ROMAN  DECORATIVE  ART  AND  SCULPTURE  95 

VIII.     ANCIENT  ROME  AS  SEEN  BY  MODERNS  .    .  104 

IX.     THE  ROMAN  DECADENCE 125 

X.     SUMMARY 138 

PART  II.— MEDIEVAL  ART. 

I.     THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  GERMAN  INVASIONS  .  143 

II.     THE  BYZANTINE  ART 149 

III.  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  ARCHITECTURE  ....  161 

IV.  THE  DOME  CHURCHES 170 

V.     BYZANTINE   DETAILS  AND  ORNAMENTAL 

SYSTEM 174 

VI.  MOHAMMEDAN  ART 178 

VII.     THE  ROMANESQUE  PERIOD 185 

VIII.     ROMANESQUE  ARCHITECTURE    ..<...  196 

V 


vi  Contents. 


Chapter.  Page. 

IX.     THE  GOTHIC  PERIOD 208 

X.     GOTHIC  ARCHITECTURE 221 

XI.    .NORTHERN  GOTHIC  SCULPTURE  AND  PAINT- 
ING       247 

XII.     THE  SECULAR  AND  ITALIAN  GOTHIC  .    .    .  258 

XIII.  ITALIAN  GOTHIC  PAINTING 270 

XIV.  ITALIAN  GOTHIC  SCULPTURE  .  288 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Ruins  of  the  Baths  of  Caracalla,  at  Rome Frontispiece. 

Figure.  Page. 

1.  The  Ruins  of  the  Roman  Forum 20 

2.  Prehistoric  Italian  "Hut-Urns,"  Bronze  Helmets,  and 

Pottery 23 

3.  Polychromatic  Egyptian  Glass  Vases  from  Italy.    British 

Museum 27 

4.  Etruscan  Bronze  Statuette.     British  Museum 29 

5.  Etruscan  Bronze  Statuette.     British  Museum 30 

6.  Etruscan  Bronze  Statuette  of  Venus.    British  Museum  .  31 

7.  Etruscan  Bronze  Statuette  of  Diana.     British  Museum  .  32 

8.  Relief  from  a  Stone  Etruscan  Cist.     British  Museum  .  33 

9.  Etruscan  Bronze  Statuette  of  Mars.     British  Museum  .  34 

10.  Greek  Vase  from  an  Etruscan  Tomb.     British  Museum.  35 

11.  Etruscan  Capital  from  a  Tomb,  Vulci.     British  Museum.  37 

12.  Ancient  Etruscan  Gateway.     Volterra 38 

13.  A  Room  in  the  Etruscan  Museum  at  Florence  ....  40 

14.  Etruscan  Cinerary  Cist  at  Volterra.     Actaeon  destroyed 

by  the  Dogs  of  Diana 41 

15.  A  Tomb  in  the  Etruscan  Museum  at  Orvieto 42 

16.  An  Etruscan  Tomb  at  Cervetri  . 44 

17.  An  Etruscan  Tomb  at  Corneto 45 

18.  Etruscan  Wall  at  Fallen 46 

19.  Archaic  Greek  Vases.     Naples  Museum 47 

20.  Greek  Coins  from  Sicily.     Naples  Museum 48 

21.  Ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Hercules.     Selinus   .....  49 

22.  Greek  Temple  at  Egesta 50 

23.  Temple  of  Concord.     Girgenti 51 

24.  Temple  of  Ceres.     Paestum 52 

25.  The  So-called  Basilica.     Paestum 53 

26.  Temple  of  Neptune.     Paestum 54 

27.  Temple  of  Neptune,  Paestum,  showing  Doric  Details  .  55 

28.  Roman  Portrait  Busts.     Capitol  Museum  .......  58 

vii 


Illustrations. 


Figure. 

29.  The  Cloaca  Maxima.     Rome 59 

30.  Tuscan  (Doric)  Capital.     Roman  Period 60 

31.  Roman  Glass  from  the  Crimea.     British  Museum  ...  61 

32.  Roman  Triumphal  Arch.     North  Africa 62 

33.  Roman  Bronze  Statuette  of  Jupiter.     From  Hungary. 

British  Museum 64 

34.  Roman  Aqueduct  in  Southern  France.     Nimes  ....  65 

35.  Roman  Bronze  Statuette  found  in  England.     A  Military 

Officer.     British  Museum 66 

36.  Roman  Gateway  in  Germany.    Trier 67 

37.  Roman  Ruins  in  Syria.     Baalbek 68 

38.  Roman  Aqueduct  in  Spain.     Segovia 69 

39.  Roman  Ruin.    East  Jordan  Territory 71 

40.  Greco-Roman  Relief  from  the  Decoration  of  a  Foun- 

tain.    Lateran  Museum.     A  Nymph  Feeding  the  In- 
fant Plutus  from  Her  Horn  of  Plenty 73 

41.  Faun.     Copy  after  Praxiteles.     Capitol,  Rome  ....  74 

42.  Bust  of  Julius  Caesar.     Rome 75 

43.  Bronze  Statuette.     Venus.     Naples 76 

44.  The  "  Maison  Carrie."     Nimes 79 

45.  Architectural  Frieze  Detail.     Lateran  Museum.     From 

Trajan's  Forum 80 

46.  Temple  of  Fortuna  Virilis.     Rome 81 

47.  Temple  of  Antoninus  and  Faustina.     Rome 82 

48.  Temple  of  Minerva.     Assisi 82 

49.  Roman  Composite  (Corinthian)  Capital 83 

50.  Ruined  Apartment  in  the  Baths  of  Caracalla 84 

51.  The  Basilica  of  Constantine.     Rome 85 

52.  Triumphal  Arch  of  Septimius  Severus.     Rome  ....  86 

53.  The  Colosseum.     Rome 87 

54.  Court  of  a  Pompeiian  House 89 

55.  Pompeiian   Floor  Mosaic.     "  Beware  of  the   Dog." 

Naples  Museum 90 

56.  Pompeiian  Wall  Painting.     Naples  Museum 91 

57.  Pompeiian  Wall  Painting.     Naples  Museum 92 

58.  Roman  Mosaic.     The  Drinking  Doves.     Capitol,  Rome  93 

59.  Pompeiian  Street,  as  Excavated 96 

60.  Pompeiian  Bronze  Lamps.     Naples  Museum 97 

61.  Pompeiian  Weights.     Naples  Museum 98 


Illustrations.  ix 


Figure.  Page. 

62.  A  Poet  Holding  a  Tragic  Theatrical  Mask,  and  a  Muse. 

Relief.     Lateran,  Rome 99 

63.  Bronze  Statue  of  Drusus.     Naples  Museum 100 

64.  Roman  Portrait  Busts.     Capitol,  Rome 101 

65.  Bust  of  the  Emperor  Titus.     Naples  Museum 102 

66.  Sleeping  Faun.     Bronze  from  Herculaneum.     Naples  .  103 

67.  Casts  from  Roman  Signet  Gems.     British  Museum  .    .  103 

68.  The  Appian  Way,  near  Rome 105 

69.  Tomb  of  Caecilia  Metella  on  the  Appian  Way 106 

70.  Tomb  of  Hadrian  and  Bridge  of  St.  Angelo.     Rome  .  107 

71.  Column  of  Trajan  and  Remains  of  the  Ulpian  Basilica  .  108 

72.  The  Roman  Forum no 

73.  The  Forum  of  Nerva 113 

74.  Ruins  of  the  Palace  of  Caligula,  Palatine  Hill  ....  114 

75.  The  Arch  of  Titus 115 

76.  Relief  from  the  Arch  of  Titus 116 

77.  The  Colosseum 117 

78.  The  Temple  of  Vesta  (so-called)    .    . 118 

79.  Gateway  of  the  Money-changers 118 

80.  The  Theater  of  Marcellus 119 

81.  The  Pantheon.    Rome 120 

82.  The  Pyramid  of  Caius  Cestius  and  Porta  Paola  ....  121 

83.  The  Porta  Maggiore  and  Tomb  of  Eurysaces 122 

84.  The  Arch  of  Drusus 123 

85.  Wall   Painting.     Christ  and  the  Woman  of  Samaria. 

Catacomb  of  St.  Calixtus.     Fourth  Century  ....    126 

86.  Basilica  Church  of  the  Manger.      Bethlehem.      Fourth 

Century 128 

87.  Basilica  of  St.  Paul.     Rome.     Rebuilt  1828.     Old 

Church,  Fourth  Century 131 

88.  Early  Christian  Sarcophagus  Relief.     The  Resurrection 

of  Lazarus.     Ravenna 132 

89.  Early  Christian  Sarcophagus  Relief.     Christ  and  Four 

Apostles.    Ravenna 134 

90.  Early   Christian    Sarcophagus    Relief.     Daniel    in    the 

Lions'  Den 135 

91.  Ivory    Consular    Diptych.     Victory,    with    Globe    and 

Scepter.     Fourth  Century 136 

92.  Anglo-Saxon  Whalebone  Casket.      British  Museum  .    .    145 


Illustrations. 


Figure,  Page. 

93.  Tenth   Century    Wall    Painting.      The     Annunciation. 

Church  of  San  Clemente,  Rome 147 

94.  Carved  Ivory  Book  Covers.     Saints  or  Apostles.     Ra- 

venna.    Tenth  Century 148 

95.  Church  of  St.  Mark.    Vestibule  with  Mosaics.    Venice.  150 

96.  Byzantine  Mosaic.     St.  Mark's,  Venice 153 

97.  Byzantine  Mosaic.     Procession  of  Saints.     San  Apolli- 

nare  Nuovo,  Ravenna.     Sixth  Century 155 

98.  Byzantine  Mosaic  Detail.     Head  of  the  Empress  Theo- 

dora.    San  Vitale,  Ravenna.     Sixth  Century  ....    156 

99.  Byzantine  Mosaic.     The  Day  of  Pentecost.     Tomb  of 

Galla  Placidia,  Ravenna.     Fifth  Century 158 

100.  Byzantine  Madonna  of  a  Type  Common  in  Italy  .    .    .  159 

101.  San  Lorenzo.     Rome.     Sixth  Century 162 

102.  San  Apollinare  Nuovo.     Ravenna.     Sixth  Century  .    .  163 

103.  San  Apollinare  in  Classe.     Ravenna.     Sixth  Century  .  164 

104.  San  Apollinare  Nuovo.     Ravenna.     Sixth  Century  .    .  166 

105.  San  Apollinare  in  Classe.     Ravenna.     Sixth  Century  .  167 

106.  San  Vitale.     Ravenna.     Sixth  Century  . 169 

107.  St.  Sophia.     Constantinople.     Sixth  Century 171 

108.  Byzantine  Capitals  in  St.  Mark's  at  Venice 173 

109.  St.  Sophia.     Constantinople 175 

no.     Byzantine  Well.     Venice 176 

in.     Capitals  and  Arabesques  from  the  Alhambra 179 

112.  Mosque  el  Aksa.    Jerusalem 180 

113.  Mohammedan   Dome  and   Dome  of  the   Rock.    Jeru- 

salem  181 

114.  Arcades  in  the  Mosque  of  Amru.     Cairo 182 

115.  Hall  of  Justice  and  Court  of  the  Lions.     Alhambra.    .    183 

116.  Arcade  in  the  Alcazar.     Seville 184 

117.  Cathedral  of  Speyer 186 

118.  Romanesque    Enameled    Silver    Relic  Chests,   in  the 

Cathedral  Treasury,  Hildesheim 188 

119.  Cathedral  of  Mainz 189 

1 20.  South  Aisle.     Peterborough 191 

121.  St.  Michael's.     Hildesheim 192 

122.  Hereford  Cathedral 193 

123.  Mainz  Cathedral 196 

124.  Worms  Cathedral 197 


Illustrations.  xi 


Figure.  Page. 

125.  Speyer  Cathedral '  .    .    198 

126.  Portal.    Haughmond  Abbey  .        199 

127.  Pisa  Cathedral,  Bell  Tower,  and  Baptistery 200 

128.  Pisa  Cathedral 201 

129.  St.  Michael's.     Lucca 202 

130.  Ivory  Carved  Book  Cover.     The  Deposition.     Hildes- 

heim.     Eleventh  Century 203 

131.  Limoges  Emanuel.   The  Virgin  Mary.    Twelfth  Century  205 

132.  Ivory  Carved   Book  Cover.     The  Deposition  and  En- 

tombment.    Thirteenth  Century.     Ravenna    ....    206 

133.  Cologne  Cathedral 212 

134.  Transept.     Cologne  Cathedral 217 

135.  Wells  Cathedral , 222 

136.  Lincoln  Cathedral 223 

137.  West  Front.     Melrose  Abbey 224 

138.  Cathedral  of  Bayonne 226 

139.  North  Aisle.     Canterbury 227 

140.  Cathedral  of  Nantes 228 

141.  Choir.     Milan  Cathedral 230 

142.  St.  Maclou.     Rouen 231 

143.  Choir.     Cathedral  of  Quimper 233 

144.  Tours  Cathedral.     (The  Flying  Buttress.) 235 

145.  Choir.     Cathedral  of  Amiens 236 

146.  Cloisters.     Winchester 237 

147.  Gothic  Details.    Southwell  Collegiate  Church.    Chapter 

House 238 

148.  Lichfield  Cathedral 240 

149.  Cathedral  of  Poitiers 242 

150.  Gargoyle  and  Gothic  Details.     Notre  Dame,  Paris  .    .    244 

151.  Gothic  Portal  Sculpture  at  Longpont  (Seine  et  Oise), 

France '    '    .    .    245 

152.  Gothic  Portal.     Chartres 248 

153.  West  Door.    Lichfield 249 

154.  English  Ivory  Triptych.     Fourteenth  Century    ....    251 

155.  Virgin  Mary  from  the  Van  Eycks'  Altarpiece  in  Ghent.  252 

156.  Reliquary  of  St.  Ursula  in  Ghent.     Hans  Memling  .    .    254 

157.  Detail  of  the  Reliquary  in  Ghent.     Hans  Memling  .    .    255 

158.  The  Presentation.     Munich.     Roger  van  der  Weyden  .    256 

159.  Guild  Hall  of  the  Cloth  Merchants.     Ypres 257 


xii  Illustrations. 


Figure.  Page. 

160.  Palais  de  Justice.     Rouen 259 

161.  Ludlow  Castle 260 

162.  Aigues  Mortes.     Porte  de  la  Reine  (Queen's  Gate)  .    .  260 

163.  Gothic  Dwelling.     Hildesheim 261 

164.  Milan  Cathedral 262 

165.  Cathedral  of  Orvieto 263 

166.  Cathedral  of  Florence 264 

167.  Detail  from  the  Porta  della  Carta.     Venice.     Fifteenth 

Century 265 

168.  Capitals  from  the   Baptistery  of   Pistoja.     Fourteenth 

Century 266 

169.  Interior  of  the  Siena  Cathedral 268 

170.  The  Upper  Church  of  St.  Francis.     Assisi 271 

171.  Cimabue.     The  Madonna.     Academy,    Florence  .    .    .  272 

172.  Duccio.     The  Madonna.      Perugia      273 

173.  Giotto.     St.  Joachim  Driven  from  the  Temple.     Arena 

Chapel,  Padua 274 

174.  Giotto.    St.  Joachim  Accomplishes  the  Sacrifice.    Arena  276 

Chapel,  Padua 

175.  Giotto.     Birth  of  the  Virgin.     Arena  Chapel,  Padua  .    277 

176.  Giotto.     Mary's  Suitors   Receiving  the  Rods  from  the 

High  Priest.     Arena  Chapel,  Padua 279 

177.  Giotto.     The  Nativity  of  Christ.     Arena  Chapel,  Padua  281 

178.  Giotto.     The  Flight  into  Egypt.     Arena  Chapel,  Padua  282 

179.  Giotto.     Christ  Crowned  with  Thorns.     Arena  Chapel,  283 

Padua    

180.  Giotto.     The  Deposition.     Arena  Chapel,  Padua  .    .    .    285 

181.  The  Campo  Santo.     Pisa 

182.  Detail  from    the    Bronze    Doors  of  Troja   Cathedral.  286 

Eleventh  Century 288 

183.  Detail  from  the  Easter  Candelabrum  of  Gaeta.     The  289 

Women  at  the  Sepulcher  ;  the  Day  of  Pentecost  .    . 

184.  Pulpit  of  the  Pisa  Baptistery.     By  Niccolo  Pisano  .    .    .    290 

185.  Detail  of  the  Pisa  Pulpit.     The  Crucifixion 

1 86.  Facade  of  the  Orvieto  Cathedral,  showing  its   Relief-  291 

Sculpture      292 

187.  Sculpture  of  Orvieto  Cathedral.     Story  of  the  Creation.  293 

Giovanni  Pisano  and  Scholars.     Detail  of  Fig.  186  . 

188.  Giotto.     Tubal  Cain.     Florence  Campanile 294 


Illustrations.  xiii 


Figure.  Page. 

189.  Lucca  della  Robbia.     Pythagoras  [Arithmetic].     Flor- 

ence Campanile 295 

190.  The  Madonna.     Prato.     Giovanni  Pisano 296 

191.  The  Campo  Santo.    Pisa 297 

192.  The  Municipal  Palace.     Prato 298 

193.  The  Municipal  Palace.     Volterra 299 

194.  The  Palazzo  Ca  d'Oro.     Venice 300 

195.  Palazzo  Francetti.     Venice 301 

196.  Detail  from  the  Doge's  Palace.     Venice 302 


PART  I. 
ROMAN  ART. 


ROMAN  AND  MEDIEVAL  ART. 


PART  I. -ROM AN  ART. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    PREHISTORIC    AGE. 

THE  earliest  relics  of  man's  existence  in  Europe  are 
roughly  chipped  implements  and  weapons  of  flint  and 
stone,  of  horn  and  bone,  the  latter  frequently  resembling 
those  used  by  the  modern  Esquimaux  and  the  former 
similar  to  those  still  used  by  absolutely  savage  races.  Of 
a  later  date  are  other  stone  implements  carefully  finished 
and  polished.  There  is  a  gap,  or  "hiatus,"  between  the 
age  of  rough  stone  implements,  the  Palaeolithic  time,  and 
the  ''age  of  polished  stone,"  the  Neolithic  time.*  The 
highly  vigorous  drawings  of  animals  on  bone  or  ivory 
which  belong  to  the  Palaeolithic  Age  are  not  found  in  the 
later  age  of  polished  stone. 

It  is  not  within  our  knowledge  to  say  that  Europe  was 
uninhabited  in  the  intervening  time  but  it  does  not  appear 
that  the  race  of  the  age  of  exclusively  rough  stone  imple- 
ments, whose  artistic  efforts  were  so  singularly  instinct 
with  vitality,  has  anything  to  do  with  the  later  history  of 
art  in  Europe.  This  race  was  apparently  exterminated, 
supplanted,  or  succeeded,  by  the  race  which  used  the 
implements  of  polished  stone,  and  it  was  this  latter  race 

*  It  is  to  be  explained  that  the  manufacturing  of  unpolished  stone  implements 
was  not  abandoned  in  the  age  of  polished  stone,  but  this  age  is  specified  by  its 
best  and  distinctive  work  and  there  was  in  it  an  improvement  generally  in  the 
finish  of  all  these  implements. 

17 


1 8  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


which  gradually  acquired  the  arts  of  metal  and  especially 
of  bronze,  and  so  began  the  later  continuous  history  of 
Europe. 

There  is  no  known  decorated  pottery  of  this  age  which 
precedes  the  use  of  metals  and  there  are  no  other  remains 
of  design  preceding  this  use  ;  pottery,  on  account  of  its 
indestructibility,*  being  usually  the  material  on  which  the 
earliest  efforts  of  art  are  preserved. 

The  first  appearance  of  metallic  arts  in  Europe  and  of 
decorated  pottery  appears  to  be  due  to  the  influence 
of  a  foreign  and  oriental  civilization.  There  is  also  a 
sequence  apparent  in  the  order  of  development,  as  regards 
the  influence  of  this  foreign  civilization,  in  which  sequence 
the  territories  of  Greece  preceded  those  of  Italy,  while 
Italy  in  turn  preceded  Switzerland,  Germany,  France, 
and  Spain.  The  indications  in  artistic  forms  and  designs 
of  a  graded  geographical  contiguity  in  development  are 
the  strongest  evidence  that  it  took  place. 

Now,  the  point  I  wish  to  make  is  this — that  as  regards 
the  history  of  civilization  and  of  art  in  Europe,  we  begin 
our  knowledge  with  the  existence  of  opposing  poles  of 
highly  developed  civilizations  and  of  very  primitive, 
though  not  absolutely  barbaric,  human  culture.  Regard- 
ing the  origin  or  beginnings  of  either  of  these  conditions 
we  know  nothing.  At  the  earliest  dates  known  to  us  for 
Chaldea  and  Egypt,  material  civilization  appears  to  have 
been  absolutely  perfect  for  the  given  local  surroundings. 
At  the  earliest  dates  known  to  us  for  Europe,  subsequent 
to  the  age  of  unpolished  stone,  the  culture  is  highly  primi- 
tive but  it  already  shows  influences  of  indirect  or  direct 
contact  with  the  old  Asiatic  and  African  cultures.  These 
influences  were  earlier  in  Greece,  apparently  slightly  later 

*  Not  as  regards  breakage,  but  as  regards  material. 


The  Prehistoric  Age.  19 

in  Italy,  and  certainly  later  in  Germany,  France,  Spain, 
and  England. 

The  modifications  made  by  Greece  in  creating  its  own 
independent  civilization  out  of  the  oriental  were  ultimately 
also  lawgiving  for  Italy,  which  finally  adopted  them 
all. 

The  modifications  made  by  Italy  in  creating  its  own 
independent  civilization  out  of  the  oriental,  and  out  of  the 
Greek,  were  ultimately  lawgiving  for  South  Germany, 
France,  Spain,  and  part  of  England,  which  countries 
ultimately  adopted  them  all.  The  history  of  these  last 
modifications  is  the  history  of  Rome. 

Four  and  five  hundred  years  after  Christ  the  hitherto 
independent  Germanic  races  of  Northern  Europe  flooded 
the  Romanized  portions  of  Europe,  came  under  the  influ- 
ence of  their  religion  and  civilization,  and  so  began  the 
history  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  of  medieval  art. 

These  explanations  assist  us  now  to  speak  of  Italy  in  the 
narrower  sense,  as  sharing  the  history  of  all  other  Euro- 
pean countries  as  regards  the  Palaeolithic  Stone  Age  and 
the  age  of  polished  stone  and  of  bronze.  But  the  history 
of  art  in  Italy  begins  with  the  age  of  decorated  pottery 
and  of  metals — that  is  to  say,  it  begins  with  the  history  of 
the  foreign  influences  of  a  superior  foreign  civilization  on 
the  primitive  culture  of  Italy,  of  which,  let  it  be  once  more 
said,  we  know  nothing  before  this  influence  began. 

The  date  1500  B.  C.  would  be,  according  to  present 
knowledge,  rather  a  late  one  for  the  first  introduction  of 
bronze  into  the  territories  of  Switzerland,  and  approximate 
estimates  may  be  made  accordingly  for  other  countries, 
north  or  south,  as  the  case  may  be. 

In  speaking  of  prehistoric  art  in  Italy  it  should  be  added 
that  the  Gauls  of  the  Po  Valley  retained  this  style  of  art 


The  Prehistoric  Age.  21 

down  to  a  comparatively  late  date,  until  the  third  century 
B.  C.  at  least.  Hence  a  great  many  objects  found  in  North 
Italy  and  belonging  to  such  late  dates  are  representative 
for  a  state  of  culture  which,  in  much  higher  antiquity,  was 
common  to  the  whole  of  Italy. 

The  Museum  of  Bologna  is  especially  rich  in  objects 
of  this  class.  Its  exhibits  include,  for  instance,  bronze 
vessels  which  were  evidently  made  under  the  conditions  of 
a  rude  and  primitive  Italian  culture  and  which  have  not- 
withstanding clear  indications  of  oriental  influence.  One 
of  these  indications  is  the  use  of  horizontal  bands  or  zones 
of  animals,  among  which  sphinxes  designed  in  the  style  of 
Phenician  or  Assyrian  art  are  common.  Another  indica- 
tion of  oriental  influence  is  the  appearance  of  birds  and 
animals  like  the  goose  and  deer  in  such  associations  as  to 
make  it  clear  that  they  are  the  counterparts  or  copies  of 
oriental  designs  which  represented  solar  or  celestial  gods 
under  the  guise  of  these  animals.  We  find,  for  example, 
the  deer  in  association  with  the  sacred  lotus  or  water-lily, 
a  talismanic  emblem  which,  in  oriental  art,  implies  that  the 
animal  connected  with  it  is  conceived  as  representing  a 
solar  or  celestial  god.  The  flower  itself  is  designed  in 
such  a  way  as  to  make  it  apparent  that  we  are  not  con- 
cerned with  a  prehistoric  Italian  study  from  nature  but 
with  the  copy  of  an  oriental  and  conventional  copy  of  the 
plant.  In  the  same  way  lines  of  birds  are  found  in  the 
ornament  of  metals  and  pottery  which  are  borrowed  from 
the  lines  of  geese  which  were  used  to  represent  Egyptian 
gods  like  Horus  and  Osiris. 

Much  more  numerous  than  these  representations  of  ani- 
mals or  of  the  human  figure  are  the  pattern  ornaments. 
These  are  again  suggestive  of  southeast  Mediterranean  influ- 
ence and  are  undoubtedly  of  Egyptian  derivation  originally. 


22  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

These  patterns  include  the  meander  (or  Greek  fret),  con- 
centric rings,  spirals,  and  zigzags,  and  were  adopted  by  the 
prehistoric  Italians  in  their  own  pottery  and  metal  designs 
according  to  a  law  which  has  many  other  illustrations. 

Whenever  a  lower  culture  borrows  from  one  which  is 
higher,  the  imitation  of  essentials  is  found  to  carry  with 
it  the  imitation  of  non-essentials.  In  this  case  the  essen- 
tial was  the  manufacture  of  bronze  into  vessels  and 
weapons  imitated  from  oriental  models.  These  models 
had  been  imported  before  an  independent  manufacture  was 
attempted.  When  the  independent  manufacture  began, 
the  imitation  of  these  models  included  not  only  the  process 
of  manufacture  but  also  the  decorative  designs. 

These  designs  are  common  to  the  Bronze  Age  of  the 
whole  of  Europe,  including  Ireland  and  Scandinavia,  and 
are  to  be  conceived  as  having  spread  gradually  by  the 
main  routes  of  trade  from  the  south  and  southeast  of 
Europe  to  the  north  and  northwest.  Many  important 
improvements  in  the  general  conditions  of  life  are  to  be 
argued  from  the  introduction  of  the  arts  of  metal  into 
Europe  and  Italy,  in  the  matter  of  habitations  and  masonry 
constructions,  the  use  of  textile  fabrics,  the  arts  of  agricul- 
ture, and  the  general  comforts  of  living.* 

According  to  the  above  account  it  will  appear  that  the 
study  of  prehistoric  Italy  is  not  so  much  the  study  of  an 
individual  country  as  of  the  Bronze  Age  throughout 
Europe,  a  study  in  which  our  knowledge  is  pieced 
together  from  different  quarters  and  very  largely  from 
circumstantial  evidence.  For  instance,  aside  from  the 
evidence  derived  from  patterns  and  designs  we  have  that 
of  philology,  which  tends  to  show  that  the  European 


*  Campii  Isaac  Taylor's  "  Origin  of  the  Aryans"  is  a  most  interesting  account  of 
this  subject. 


The  Prehistoric  Age. 


words  used  for  metals  and  for  weights  and  measures  are 
generally  of  Semitic  (Phenician)  derivation. 

All  objects  representing    the    period  are  obtained  from 
tomb  finds.      In  the  case  of  the  so-called   "hut-urns"   of 


FIG.  2. — PREHISTORIC  ITALIAN  "  HUT-URNS,"  BRONZE  HELMETS,  AND 
POTTERY. 

prehistoric  Italy,  which  were  used  for  burial  of  the  ashes  of 
the  dead,  we  have  an  obvious  imitation  of  the  dwelling- 
house  of  the  period.  In  our  illustration  of  such  "hut- 
urns"  as  found  at  Corneto,  north  of  Rome,  we  notice  also 
some  specimens  of  prehistoric  pottery  and  some  bronze 
helmets  (Fig.  2). 


CHAPTER  II. 

EARLY    ITALIAN    ART. 

SOME  clear  conception  of  the  outlines  of  Roman  and 
therefore  of  ancient  Italian  history  is  an  elementary  con- 
dition of  the  study  or  knowledge  of  Roman  art.  But  by 
the  word  history  we  must  understand  here  not  the  list  of 
the  Roman  kings  or  the  chronicles  of  Roman  wars  or 
battles  or  the  lives  of  the  famous  statesmen  and  emperors, 
but  rather  an  account  of  the  general  conditions  of  the 
civilization.  To  this  account  the  Roman  art  itself  offers 
the  greatest  assistance  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  we 
study  it  ;  but  there  are  entire  centuries  from  which  monu- 
ments* are  lacking  for  the  Romans  themselves,  and  for 
which  the  general  conditions  of  Italian  history  and  civiliza- 
tion must  be  our  guide  in  resurrecting  in  imagination  that 
art  of  the  Romans  which  once  summarized  and  expressed 
their  character. 

Broadly  speaking,  it  is  not  till  seven  centuries  of  Roman 
history  have  been  passed  over  in  imagination  that  we  can 
mention  existing  visible  remains  of  its  greatness  ;  and 
Roman  art  as  we  know  it  is  mainly  the  art  of  the  empire, 
which  belongs  to  the  five  centuries  between  the  accession 
of  Augustus  (B.  C.  31)  and  the  chieftainship  of  Odoacer, 
the  first  Germanic  ruler  of  Italy  (A.  D.  476). f 

*  The  word  is  used  in  a  sense  meaning  any  surviving  visible  relic,  whether  of 
building  or  otherwise. 

t  We  do  not  consider  Roman  history  in  any  sense  as  ending  with  the  German 
invasions  of  the  fifth  century  A.  D.,  for  it  lasted  a  thousand  years  longer  in 
Eastern  Europe.  But  the  ancient  art  and  history  of  Rome,  according  to  the 
cnrrent  system  of  terminology,  ended  about  this  time  ;  after  which  we  speak  of 
medieval  art  and  history  in  Western  Europe  and  of  Byzantine  (East  Roman)  art 
and  history  in  Eastern  Europe. 


Early  Italian  Art.  25 

It  is  clear  that  a  history  of  Roman  art  is  not  merely  a 
description  of  the  ruins  and  relics  which  have  come  down 
to  our  day.  Even  for  the  periods  which  have  been  most 
fortunate  in  such  survivals,  the  actual  remains  are  a  most 
insignificant  and  fragmentary  portion  of  those  which  once 
existed.  They  assist  us,  however,  to  think  of  these  others 
as  once  existing.  And  so  of  the  periods  which  have  left 
us  practically  nothing  of  the  Romans,  it  also  holds  that 
our  effort  to  reconceive  them  is  vastly  assisted  by  what  we 
know  of  other  Italian  art,  which  has  been  somewhat  more 
fortunate  as  regards  survivals. 

But  there  is  still  a  point  to  be  made  in  the  matter  of  his- 
tory as  affecting  Roman  art.  The  word  Roman  has  most 
singularly  diverse  meanings  at  different  times.  During 
the  time  of  the  monarchy  (750-510  B.  C. )  it  applies  at 
first  to  a  territory  about  ten  miles  wide  by  twenty  long. 
During  the  later  republic  and  between  275-31  B.  C.  it 
includes  the  whole  of  Italy.*  During  the  time  of  the 
empire  (B.  C.  3i-A.  D.  476)  it  includes  all  the  countries 
surrounding  the  Mediterranean  basin  as  well  as  portions  of 
Britain,  Germany,  and  Hungary.  And  these  changes  are 
not  simply  changes  of  area  which  imply  a  series  of  widen- 
ing conquests  of  foreign  peoples  which  are  ruled  from  a 
distance  by  foreigners  to  them.  The  Romans  changed  in 
quality,  character,  and  literally  in  race,  as  much  as  the 
areas  of  domination  changed.  The  Roman  of  the  fifth 
century  A.  D.  was  any  freeman  living  within  the  largest 
boundaries  of  the  state— a  Gaul,  Briton,  Spaniard,  North 
African,  Egyptian,  Syrian,  or  Greek — and  at  this  time  he 
was  not  only  Roman  in  name  but  also  in  language  (if 
living  in  Western  Europe),  in  laws,  in  rights,  and  in 

*  The  northern  Po  Valley  was  excluded  from  the  political  conception  of  Italy 
until  the  time  of  Caesar. 


26  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

civilization.  The  Roman  of  the  times  of  Marius  and  Sulla 
(first  century  B.  C. )  was  any  freeman  within  the  bounda- 
ries of  Italy — Etruscan,  Gaul,  or  Samnite,  as  the  case 
might  be.  The  Romans  of  the  time  of  the  early  kings 
did  not  even  include  the  Latin  tribe  to  which  they  other- 
wise belonged  and  whose  language  was  their  own. 

It  is  clear  then  that  the  term  Roman  art  is  also  not  a 
fixed  term.  It  implies  also  different  things  at  different 
times.  Luckily,  however,  it  assists  us  to  say  in  every  time 
what  the  Romans  of  that  time  really  were. 

Early  Italian  and  Etruscan  Art. 

We  must  begin  then  with  some  general  conception  of 
Italy  at  large  in  the  time  when  the  Roman  city  was  first 
founded  (about  750  B.  C. )  and  also  with  some  conception 
of  the  relations  of  the  whole  country  to  the  exterior  civili- 
zation of  its  time. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  before  Christ  ancient 
Egypt  was  only  two  centuries  and  a  quarter  distant  from 
final  national  downfall,  with  the  Persian  conquest,  and 
Assyria  had  a  century  less  of  national  existence  to  run 
through.  The  time  even  of  Rome's  foundation  was  there- 
fore not  an  early  one  in  ancient  history,  which  dates  the 
Egyptian  monarchy  to  5000  B.  C. ,  and  which  concedes 
that  the  civilization  of  Chaldea  had  reached  its  highest 
perfection  at  the  time  of  the  great  pyramids.  For  many 
centuries  before  Rome's  foundation,  Italy  had  shared 
with  other  Mediterranean  countries  the  benefits  of  Pheni- 
cian  commerce,  and  that  is  to  say  that  it  was  very  inti- 
mately acquainted,  at  least  through  trade,  with  the 
technical  arts  and  inventions  of  the  Egyptian  and  Meso- 
potamian  civilizations.  For  the  Phenicians  made  their 
living  as  merchants  and  their  own  civilization  was  entirely 


Early  Italian  Art. 


27 


of  Egyptian  or  Assyrian  derivation.*  Their  great  colony 
of  Carthage  had  been  founded  in  North  Africa  about  fifty 
years  before  the  foundation  of  Rome,  but  this  was  only 
one  of  countless  settlements  which  they  made  along  the 
shores  of  North  and  Northwest  Africa,  of  Spain,  of 
Southern  France,  of  Sardinia,  and  Corsica. 

Thus  one  element  of  Italian  and  therefore  of  Roman  art 


FIG.  3. — POLYCHROMATIC  EGYPTIAN  GLASS  VASES  FROM  ITALY. 
British  Museum. 

was  the  oriental,  but  this  point  applies  less  to  style  than  it 
does  to  technical  manipulation  and  the  knowledge  and 
uses  of  materials  and  tools.  In  the  matter  of  style  we 
shall  observe  some  oriental  traits  in  surviving  examples  of 
early  Italian  art,  but  here  rather  because  of  Greek  in- 
fluences, which  in  early  days  themselves  exhibited  an 
oriental  character.  This  leads  us  to  consider  the  influ- 


*  Assyrian  civilization  was  a  repetition  and  continuation  of  the  Chaldean. 


28  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

ence  of  the  Greeks  in  Italy  as  contrasted  with  that  of  the 
Phenicians. 

The  Greek  colonies  of  Italy  were  especially  numerous 
around  its  southern  shores,  but  they  reached  as  far  north 
as  Pisa.  In  Sicily  they  were  especially  important.  Many 
of  them  were  flourishing  civic  states  as  early  as  the  eighth 
and  seventh  centuries  B.  C.,  and  the  Greeks  had  become 
very  active  rivals  of  Phenician  commerce  in  the  eastern 
Mediterranean  as  early  as  the  eighth  century. 

Italian  art,  when  we  first  know  it,  is  thus  composed  of 
two  factors — the  oriental  (through  Phenician  commerce) 
and  the  Greek — the  Greek  having  overlaid  the  oriental 
substratum  of  technical  inventions  with  its  own  peculiar 
style,  which  in  its  early  days  had  itself  an  oriental  guise 
and  quality. 

The  three  Italian  nations  which  we  know  best  at  the 
time  of  Rome's  foundation  (aside  from  the  Greek  settlers 
of  Italy)  are  the  Samnites,  the  Etruscans,  and  the  Gauls. 
They  were  mainly  settled  in  the  order  named  from  south 
to  north.  The  Gauls  were  the  ruling  nation  of  the  Po 
Valley ;  the  Etruscans  were  especially  strong  in  modern 
Tuscany,  which  is  named  after  them,  although  they  had 
settlements  also  in  Campania  (in  the  vicinity  of  Naples). 
Among  these  nations  we  owe  most  to  the  Etruscans  for 
our  general  knowledge  of  ancient  Italy,  in  which  they 
were  certainly  the  most  highly  civilized  and  powerful 
native  nation.  Aside  from  a  few  walls,  tunneled  aque- 
ducts, and  arches,  we  know  them  best  from  the  objects 
found  in  their  tombs. 

Like  other  ancient  nations  the  Etruscans  believed  in  a 
life  after  death,  and,  like  other  ancient  nations,  they  actu- 
ally believed  that  the  utensils,  ornaments,  and  surround- 
ings of  this  life  were  available  for  the  use  of  the  deceased 


Early  Italian  Art. 


29 


in  the  spirit  world.*  Hence  the  practice  of  burying  in  the 
tombs  so  many  various  objects  of  daily  life,  which,  as 
excavated  in  the  last  two  centuries, 
now  enable  us  to  reconstruct  a  picture 
of  ancient  civilization. 

The  museums  which  are  especially 
rich  in  the  objects  from  Etruscan  tombs 
are  those  of  the  Vatican  at  Rome  and 
of  Florence,  while  many  others  are  in 
the  Louvre  at  Paris  and  in  the  British 
Museum.  These  objects  are  by  no 
means  exclusively  of  Etruscan  art  and 
manufacture.  Many  of  them  are  im- 
portations of  commerce  derived  from 
the  Greeks  and  from  the  Phenicians, 
which  are  significant  of  the  general 
influences  and  conditions  under  which 
the  Italian  art  developed,  as  already 
mentioned. 

Bronze,  silver,  and  gold  vessels, 
occasionally  vases,  more  frequently 
saucer-shaped  pateras,  are  embossed 
and  engraved  in  an  Egyptian  style  and 
with  Egyptian  subjects,  and  were  made 
and  sold  by  the  Phenicians.  Similar  ones  found  in  Cyprus 
can  be  seen  in  the  New  York  Museum  and  are  illustrated 
in  Cesnola's  ''Cyprus."  Articles  of  jewelry  of  Egypto- 
Phenician  make  and  style  are  especially  well  represented 
in  the  Campana  Collection  of  the  Louvre  and  in  the 


FIG.  4. — ETRUSCAN 

BRONZE  STATUETTE. 

British  Museum. 


*  The  traditional  practice  of  placing  these  objects  in  the  tombs  undoubtedly 
survived  by  many  centuries  the  belief  in  their  actual  utility  to  the  dead.  The 
practice  continued  among  all  pagan  nations  until  the  triumph  of  Christianity  in 
the  fourth  century  A.  D.,  and  there  were  many  philosophic  minds  which  were 
superior  to  so  materialistic  a  view  of  the  after  life  at  least  as  early  as  the  fifth  cen- 
tury before  Christ. 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


Vatican.  The  Etruscans  were  themselves  great  workers 
in  metal,  at  first  under  oriental  tutelage,  and  consequently 
using  oriental  patterns  in  the  pieces  of  earlier  date.  Large 
bronze  shields  and  vessels  of  their  make  can  be  seen  in  the 
British  Museum.  Much  more  numerous  in  the  modern 
finds  are  vessels  of  black  pottery  (" Bucchero  ware")  with 
raised  patterns  imitating  the  embossed  designs  of  metal. 

Diminutive  vases  of  opaque 
polychromatic  glass  which 
were  used  for  unguents  or  per- 
fumes of  the  toilet  were  among 
the  objects  of  Egyptian  impor- 
tation (Fig.  3). 

Various  miscellaneous  ob- 
jects of  the  above-mentioned 
classes  can  be  dated  to  the 
seventh  century  B.  C.  It  is 
not  likely  that  many  of  those 
known  «a re  older  than  the 
eighth.  Among  the  most 
famous  excavated  early  Etrus- 
can tombs  are  the  ' '  Regulini- 
Galassi"  tomb  at  Cervetri  and 
the  "Polledrara"  tomb  at 
Vulci. 

As  early  at  least  as  the  sixth 
century  B.  C.  Greek  influences 
are  very  distinct  in  Etruscan 
art  and  were  in  fact  dominant  from  that  time.  They  are 
not,  however,  obvious  to  an  eye  accustomed  to  the  per- 
fected Greek  style  and  to  a  person  unaware  how  thoroughly 
oriental  in  appearance  the  early  Greek  art  really  was.  The 
Cypriote  Greek  statuettes  and  figurines  of  the  New  York 


FIG.  5. — ETRUSCAN  BRONZE 

STATUETTE. 
British  Museum. 


Early  Italian  Art. 


f 


Museum  will  offer,  however,  many  analogies  to  the  figures 

shown  here  in  the  text.     The  rude  appearance  of  Fig.  4 

would   only   allow    us    to   say 

that,  although  in  fact  Etruscan, 

it  might  have  been   made  by 

any  Mediterranean  people, 

imitating  oriental  art  in  a  rude 

way  ;    for    if    the    figure    had 

been  Egyptian  it  might  have 

been   equally   stiff    in   posture 

but  it  would  be  far  more  re- 

fined  and   finished   in   details. 

But  with  Figs.  5  and  6  we  have 

unmistakable   Greek   traits, 

although   the   figures    them- 

selves are  Etruscan.     There  is 

no   reason   for   dating  any   of 

these  figures  earlier   than  the 

sixth  century  B.   C.  ,  although 

they   represent   a   style  which 

had  existed  in  Italy  for  some 

considerable   time   before   that 

date.     This   style   continued 

with  some  slight  improvement 

in  the  early  fifth  century  B.  C., 

as  illustrated  in  Fig.  7. 

We  have  here  a  very  good 
illustration,  not  only  of  the 
early  Etruscan  art,  but  also  of 
the  Greek  art  of  the  same 
time,  on  which  it  now  became 
dependent.  This  statuette  is 
a  typical  one  for  Greek  and  Etruscan  style  down  to  the 


FIG.  6.—  ETRUSCAN  BRONZE 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


very  threshold  of  the  Phidian  period.  The  pose  shows 
Egyptian  influences  and  places  the  left  leg  in  advance, 
which  is  always  found  in  Egyptian  statues  which  place  the 
legs  in  action.  The  drapery  and  gestures  of  the  arms  are 

distinctly  early  Greek. 
The  bulging  eyes 
would  not  be  found, 
however,  in  a  Greek 
piece  which  had 
reached  the  technical 
perfection  of  the  execu- 
tion here ;  and  this 
execution,  it  should  be 
observed,  is  by  no 
means  rude.  The  zig- 
zag drapery  lines  (ob- 
servable in  Figs.  6  and 
7)  are  originally  imita- 
tions in  Greek  art 
from  wooden  figurines 
used  in  shrines,  which 
were  dressed  in  actual 
stuffs  plaited  to  the 
figure  in  a  manner 
thus  copied. 

On  the  whole,  it 
should  be  said  that 
very  erroneous  conclu- 
sions as  to  the  general 
condition  of  a  civilization  might  be  drawn  from  the  odd 
appearance  of  such  figures.  Something  is  to  be  attributed 
to  the  conservative  influence  of  religious  tradition,  but  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  world  did  not  yet  know 


FIG.  7. — ETRUSCAN  BRONZE  STATUETTE 
OF  DIANA.     British  Museum. 


Early  Italian  Art. 


33 


that  perfection  of  Greek  art  which  has  since  become 
commonplace.  The  oriental  art  which  had  so  far  ruled  the 
civilized  world,  and  whose  influences  are  still  apparent  in 
these  illustrations,  had  reached  a  high  perfection  of  formal 
and  technical  execution,  but  sculpture  as  practiced  by  the 
Egyptians  had  not  for  many  centuries  deviated  from  a 
fixed  and  motionless  conception  of  the  sitting  and  standing 
figure,  and  the  very  perfection  of  Egyptian  civilization  con- 
tributed to  restrain  and  formalize  at  the  outset  the  art  of 
nations  which  were  learning  from  it. 


FIG.  8. — RELIEF  FROM  A  STONE  ETRUSCAN  CIST.     British  Museum. 

The  early  Etruscan  surface  design  (paintings  as  known 
from  tomb  frescoes,  and  reliefs)  exhibits  some  traits 
foreign  to  Greek  style  and  also  a  general  dependence  on 
it.  In  the  relief  from  Chiusi  (Fig.  8)  the  exaggeration 
and  contortion  of  the  attitudes  are  distinctively  Etruscan, 
although  the  general  conception  of  the  art  shows  Greek 


34 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


traditions.     A  certain  straining  and  violence  in  the  atti- 
tudes of  reliefs  is  very  common  in  Etruscan  art  and  is  well 

illustrated  here.  The 
date  is  not  far  from  500 
B.  C. 

We  come  then  finally, 
art  of 
which 


as  regards  the 
design,  to  that 
shows  dependence  on 
the  perfected  style  of 
the  Greeks.  Fig.  9 
would  be  an  illustration 
of  this  class  and,  judging 
from  the  face,  is  of  a 
relatively  early  date  — 
late  fifth,  or  early  fourth 
century  B.  C.  From 
this  time  on,  Etruscan 
art  is  Greek  in  matter 
as  well  as  manner,  and 
with  such  slight  devia- 
tions from  the  original 
that  a  practiced  eye  is 
required  to  note  them. 
Quite  numerous  in  the 
museums  of  Europe  are 
the  ladies'  bronze  mir- 
rors which  are  decorated 
on  the  back  with  sub- 
jects of  Greek  myth, 
and  the  circular  bronze 

cists  which  held  objects  for  the  toilet  are  decorated  in  the 

same  fashion. 


FIG.  9.— ETRUSCAN  BRONZE  STATUETTE 
OF  MARS.    British  Museum. 


Early  Italian  Art. 


35 


The  most  palpable  indication  of  the  Greek  influences  in 
Etruscan,  and  therefore  in  Italian,  art  is  the  very  large 
number  of  imported  Greek  painted  pottery  vases  found  in 
the  tombs.  So  numerous  are  they  that  the  presumption 
long  prevailed  that  they  were  native  Etruscan  works,  and 
the  title  of  ' '  Etruscan  vases ' '  still  clings  in  popular  use  to 
them,  although  not  one  in  a  thousand  was  actually  Etrus- 
can work. 

The  Etruscans  were  especially  famous  for  their  skill  in 
working  terra-cotta 
(baked  clay),  of  which 
many  examples  sur- 
vive. In  gem-cutting 
they  even  excelled  the 
Greeks,  as  far  as 
actual  skill  in  execu- 
tion is  concerned. 
Their  bronze  utensils 
were  in  request  at 
Athens  for  artistic 
workmanship  in  the 
best  days  of  Athenian 
art. 

The  two  most  noted 
existing  works  of 
Etruscan  art  are  the 
life-size  bronze  wolf  of 
the  Capitol  Museum  in 
Rome  and  the  large 
bronze  Chimaera  in 
Florence.  Their 
sculptured  stone  sarcophagi  and  stone  cists  (for  the  ashes 
of  cremated  bodies)  are  quite  numerous  in  several 


FIG.  10. — GREEK  VASE  FROM  AN  ETRUSCAN 
TOMB.     British  Museum. 


36  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

museums,  but  the  decorative  reliefs  and  surmounting  re- 
clining figures  of  these  works  are  generally  of  rather 
inferior  art  and  execution. 

Finally,  we  have  to  mention  the  Etruscans  as  engineers 
and  architects.  It  is  here  that  they  must  have  been  most 
helpful  to  the  Romans.  No  ruins  of  Etruscan  temples 
have  survived.  They  are  known  to  have  resembled  the 
Greek  temples  in  form  and  are  presumed  to  have  been 
rather  inferior  to  them  in  the  beauty  of  detail  and  of  pro- 
portions. The  Etruscans  are  credited  with  devising  the 
cold  and  formal  style  of  Doric  capital  which  was  generally 
used  by  the  Romans  in  the  time  of  the  empire  (when  they 
employed  the  Doric)  and  which  has  been  known  as  the 
"Tuscan"  order  (Fig.  30).  It  has  been  shown,  how- 
ever, by  an  American  archaeologist,*  that  the  so-called 
Tuscan  Doric  capital  is  probably  the  survival  of  a  very 
simple  and  undeveloped  Doric  form,  rather  than  the  late 
corruption  and  debasement  of  a  better  one.  The  capital 
in  question,  as  illustrated  here  from  a  modern  drawing, 
lacks  the  fine  curve  and  bold  projection  of  the  Parthenon 
Doric  and  is  also  distinguished  from  the  Greek  Doric  by  a 
projecting  fillet  at  the  top  of  the  column.  It  is  probable 
that  the  so-called  "Composite"  order  of  the  Romans 
(Fig.  49)  originated  with  the  Etruscans.  A  very  interest- 
ing and  beautiful  variant  of  the  Ionic  capital  in  the  British 
Museum  shows  an  anticipation  of  this  form  in  the  row  of 
acanthus  leaves  around  the  neck  (Fig.  n). 

The"  most  famous  contribution  of  the  Etruscans  to 
Roman  art  is  the  use  of  the  arch  (Figs.  12,  29).  That 
they  were  the  first  to  use  it  in  Italy  is  clear  and  it  is  also 
clear  that  they  used  it  largely,  though  even  the  ruins  of 


*  Dr.  Joseph  Thacher  Clarke,  translator  of  Reber's  "  History  of  Ancient  Art," 
and  excavator  at  Assos  in  Asia  Minor  for  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America. 


Early  Italian  Art. 


37 


their  work  in  this  line  are  scanty.  The  early  use  of  the 
arch  in  oriental  countries  is  now  generally  conceded  and 
it  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  arts  which  the  Etruscans 
borrowed  from  the  East.  The  keystone  arch  was  dis- 
covered in  Egypt  in 
1891,  in  a  tomb  at 
Meydum,  belonging 
to  the  Third  Dynasty 
(about  4000  B.  C.).* 
It  has  long  been  known 
in  brick  arches  at 
Thebes,  which  are 
dated  to  the  Eigh- 
teenth Dynasty  (1600 
B.  C).  Its  use  in 
ancient  Assyria  is 
demonstrated  in  door- 
ways, gateways,  and 
drains,  and  is  almost  certainly  demonstrated  for  the  vault- 
ing (roofing)  of  Assyrian  palaces.  The  general  repug- 
nance of  Greek  builders  to  the  arch  is  notorious  and  its 
later  widespread  use  throughout  the  modern  world  is 
certainly  due  to  the  Etruscans,  as  the  Romans  learned  its 
use  from  them.  Etruscan  engineering  capacity  is  attested 
by  various  drainage  constructions,  of  which  the  most 
famous  is  the  Cloaca  Maxima,  or  great  sewer,  at  Rome, 
dating  from  the  sixth  century  B.  C.  (Fig.  29). 

The  Etruscan  political  system  was  one  of  independent 
cities  banded  together  for  foreign  emergencies  and  ruled 
by  oligarchy.  This  alliance  of  civic  states  was  ultimately 
conquered  by  Rome  during  the  Samnite  wars  (in  which 
the  Etruscans  were  no  less  engaged  than  the  Samnites) 

*  By  Mr.  William  M.  Flinders  Petrie. 


FIG.  ii.— ETRUSCAN  CAPITAL  FROM  A  TOMB, 
VULCI.     British  Museum. 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


between  350  and  290  B.  C.  They  were  then  gradually 
absorbed  into  the  Roman  political  system.  The  Etruscans 
were  all  Roman  citizens  before  the  first  century  of  the 


FIG.  12. — ANCIENT  ETRUSCAN  GATEWAY.    Volterra. 


Early  Italian  Art.  39 


Christian  era.  Their  language  was  displaced  by  the  Latin, 
and  in  this  the  conquest  of  the  Roman  was  most  apparent, 
for  there  is  no  conquest  of  force  which  can  equal  that 
involved  in  the  disappearance  of  a  language.  No  litera- 
ture of  the  Etruscans  has  survived.  Their  language  as 
found  in  inscriptions  is  undeciphered  and  appears  to  be 
foreign  in  derivation  to  other  speeches  of  Europe.  Their 
alphabet  was  borrowed  from  the  Greeks  and  their  deities 
appear  to  have  been  roughly  analogous  to  theirs.  Their 
religion,  as  would  appear  from  tomb  paintings,  was  more 
fantastic  and  more  gloomy  than  the  Greek.  Considering 
the  great  excellence  of  their  art  and  their  obvious  im- 
portance as  a  nation,  almost  nothing  is  known  of  this 
people.  They  are  still  awaiting  their  historian.  This  is 
partly  owing  to  our  ignorance  of  their  language,  and  their 
lack  of  a  surviving  literature  ;  but  it  is  a  grand  point  to 
understand  that  although  they  disappear  from  history  in 
name  with  the  third  century  B.  C.  they  did  not  disappear 
in  fact.  They  were  not  exterminated  or  decimated  as  a 
race.  They  had  been  the  foremost  native  people  of  Italy 
in  its  early  civilization,  and  as  Roman  subjects  and  Roman 
citizens  they  continued  to  play  their  part — less  conspicu- 
ously, but  not  less  serviceably.  Maecenas,  the  great 
patron  of  letters  and  friend  of  Augustus,  was  an  Etruscan 
— so  were  the  emperors  Vespasian  and  Titus.  Their 
artistic  talents  and  technical  knowledge  certainly  did  their 
full  share  of  service  to  the  Roman  imperial  period  which 
concealed  under  its  name  and  shadow  so  many  nations 
and  so  many  national  talents.  In  the  Middle  Ages  and 
in  the  Italian  Renaissance  the  Tuscan  artists  were  the  fore- 
most of  Italy.* 


*  A  small  but  interesting  collection  of  Etruscan  objects  is  in  the  Boston  Museum 
of  Fine  Arts. 


Early  Italian  Art. 


Local  Notes  on  Etruscan    Tombs  and  Museums. 

Our  illustration  from  one  of  the  rooms  of  the  Etruscan 
Museum  at  Florence  will  give  an  idea  of  the  general 
character  of  a  collection  of  Etruscan  antiquities  (Fig.  13). 
On  the  walls  above  we  see  some  -copies  of  the  tomb  paint- 
ings. The  apartment  is  filled  mainly  with  sarcophagi  and 
cists  for  the  ashes  of 
the  dead.  As  appar- 
ent in  the  varying  sizes 
of  these  objects,  both 
ordinary  burial  and 
cremation  were  prac- 
ticed. The  two  large 
sarcophagi  belong  to  a 
class  which  is  not  very 
numerous  and  the 
much  larger  number  of 
cists  for  ashes  show 
that  cremation  was  the 
habitual  custom. 

There  is  an  even 
larger  number  of  these 
cists  in  the  Museum  of 
Volterra,  from  which 
museum  we  have  se- 
lected a  characteristic 
example  for  the  relief 
style  of  later  date  (Fig.  14)  to  contrast  with  the  relief 
from  Chiusi  (Fig.  8). 

The  size  of  these  cists  is  generally  about  two  feet  in 
length.  The  subjects  of  the  reliefs  with  which  the  front 
and  sides  of  the  cists  are  decorated  are  mainly  taken  from 
Greek  mythology  and  very  frequently  from  Homer.  The 


FIG.  14. — ETRUSCAN  CINERARY  CIST  AT  VOL- 
TERRA.   ACTVEON  DESTROYED  BY 
THE  DOGS  OF  DIANA. 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


execution  is  generally  of  rather  indifferent  quality,  such  as 
we  should  expect  from  an  ordinary  artisan,  but  the 
motives,  action,  and  composition  of  the  designs  are  of 
great  beauty,  for  all  periods  later  than  the  middle  of  the 
fifth  century  B.  C.  (Fig.  8  would  represent  the  archaic 
or  primitive  style  of  about  500  B.  C. )  An  enormous 
number  of  these  reliefs  show  a  style  which  cannot  be 
earlier  than  the  first  or  second  centuries  B.  C. ,  and  many 
doubtless  belong  to  later  centuries. 

The  reliefs  of  these  cists  are  the  best  possible  illustration 

of  the  manner  in  which 
Italian  art  became  sat- 
urated with  Greek  influ- 
ences and  of  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the 
Roman  art  developed. 
They  also  show  how 
"Etruscan''  art  long 
survived  the  civic  inde- 
pendence of  the  Etrus- 
can states,  whose  impor- 
tance for  Italian  culture 
we  are  too  apt  to  ignore 
after  the  date  of  the  Ro- 
man conquest. 

The  reclining  figures 
which    are    represented 

FIG.  15.— A  TOMB  IN  THE  ETRUSCAN  MUSEUM    On  the  Covers  of  the  cist 
AT  ORVIETO.  .  .         , 

are  invariably  or  a  more 

hurried  and  ruder  art  than  the  reliefs  on  the  body  of  the 
object  and  seem  to  have  been  made  by  an  inferior  class  of 
artists.  They  represent  the  deceased  in  a  conventional 
way  and  generally  without  effort  at  exact  portraiture. 


Early  Italian  Art.  43 


These  reclining  figures  always  hold  a  patera,  or  dish  for 
the  receipt  of  the  funeral  offerings  of  food  and  drink. 

In  the  matter  of  works  of  art  of  especially  fine  execution 
the  Museum  of  Perugia  leads  almost  every  other  Etruscan 
collection  except  the  Vatican.  Among  its  treasures  we 
may  specify  a  terra-cotta  head  of  the  Medusa,  a  terra-cotta 
cist  decorated  with  a  mask  of  the  Medusa  and  two  griffins, 
and  a  silver  mirror-case  with  a  relief  of  Bacchus  riding  on 
the  Panther — all  of  which  will  rival  the  most  famous  similar 
productions  of  Greek  art. 

The  small  museum  at  Cortona  boasts  a  bronze  lamp 
with  apertures  for  sixteen  wicks,  which  was  found  sus- 
pended in  a  tomb,  and  is  on  account  of  its  decorative  relief 
designs  the  most  remarkable  object  of  its  class  in  Europe. 
,  In  the  Museum  of  Chiusi  (the  ancient  Clusium)  we  find 
a  large  amount  of  pottery,  many  cinerary  cists,  and  some 
statuary. 

The  museum  at  Corneto  (Tarquinii)  is  surprisingly  rich, 
in  view  of  the  extent  to  which  the  tombs  of  this  locality 
have  contributed  to  the  Vatican  collection.  Its  most  re- 
markable possession  is  a  set  of  false  teeth.  This  reminds 
us  of  an  exception  to  the  Roman  law  forbidding  the  burial 
of  gold  objects  at  funerals,  in  favor  of  the  gold  filling  of 
the  teeth  of  the  deceased.  The  Vatican  collection  con- 
tains the  finest  examples  of  work  in  the  precious  metals. 
Among  other  interesting  things  may  be  noted  here  a  bed- 
stead with  interlacing  flat  strips  of  bronze  corresponding 
to  our  modern  bed  springs. 

The  Etruscan  tombs  are  not  generally  so  interesting  at 
present  as  they  are  at  the  time  of  excavation  and  before 
the  buried  objects  have  been  dispersed  in  the  museums. 
An  illustration  of  the  humbler  class  of  tombs  is  offered 
from  the  Museum  of  Orvieto,  in  which  the  stones  have 


44 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


been  set  up  as  they  were  originally  placed  (Fig.  15). 
The  tombs  which  are  most  generally  visited  by  tourists 
are  those  of  Cervetri  (Caere)  and  of  Corneto  (Tarquinii), 
which  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome. 

Fig.  1 6  is  a  picture  from  a  tomb  at  Cervetri  which  shows 
two  shields,  a  sword,  a  helmet,  a  staff,  a  drinking  cup,  a 
frying  pan,  and  two  necklaces,  carved  in  relief  on  the  walls 


FIG.  16.— AN  ETRUSCAN  TOMB  AT  CERVETRI. 

of  the  tomb.  This  will  illustrate  the  cases  in  which  the 
actual  objects  are  found  in  similar  location.  Here  they 
are  represented  for  a  magical  purpose,  the  theory  being 
that  to  represent  the  object  in  the  tomb  was  to  endow  the 
deceased  with  the  use  of  its  spiritual  counterpart.  We 
also  notice  the  pillows  carved  in  stone  in  the  cavity  where 
the  body  was  laid  to  rest.  The  capitals  of  the  pilasters 
are  of  a  primitive  Ionic  form,  illustrating  the  evolution  of 


46 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


the  Ionic  capital  from  the  Egyptian  lotus  flower,  and  also 
illustrating  the  way  in  which  such  primitive  Greek  forms 
are  constantly  found  in  Etruscan  examples. 

Corneto  is  the  locality  most  remarkable  for  tombs  whose 
walls  are  decorated  by  frescoes.  Our  illustration  from  Cor- 
neto (Fig.  17)  shows  a  banquet-scene  and  musicians.  The 
style  of  drawing  has  something  of  the  angularity  to  be 
seen  in  Fig.  8,  but  shows  an  improvement  which  bespeaks 


FIG.  18.— ETRUSCAN  WALL  AT  FALLERI. 

a  later  date,  although  probably  still  in  the  fifth  century 
B.  C.  The  animals,  which  are  facing  a  shrub  and  which 
resemble  leopards,  are  originally  lions,  and  are  copied 
from  lions  facing  a  "  sacred  tree,"  such  as  are  common  in 
early  Greek  art  under  oriental  influence. 

The  walls  of  Fallen,  north  of  Rome  (Fig.  18),  are  an 
example  of  what  may  be  seen  in  the  way  of  Etruscan 
masonry  in  various  quarters.  The  lower  layers  of  the  town 
walls  of  Cortona,  for  instance,  date  back  to  the  Etruscan 


Early  Italian  Art. 


47 


period  and  show  a  similar  construction.  In  the  surviving 
Italian  towns,  on  sites  dating  from  the  ancient  days  of 
Latium,  there  are  many  remains  of  similar  massive  walls 
and  also  of  town  gateways.  Of  the  latter  class  there  is  a 
fine  example  at  Alatri,  south  of  Rome. 

The  Greek  States  of  Italy  and  Sicily. 

Although  the  Greek  states  of  Italy  were  not  in  direct 
contact  with  Rome,  their  significance  for  the  history  of 
that  Italian  culture  which  grew  to  be  the  Roman  can 
hardly  be  over-estimated.  South  Italy  was  called  Magna 
GrfEcia  (Great  Greece),  which  is  suggestive  of  the  con- 
ception attached  by  antiquity  itself  to  this  part  of  Italy. 
The  great  luxury  prevailing  in  these  Greek  Italian  cities  is 
still  attested  by  our  word  "sybarite,"  derived  from  Sy- 
baris. 

We  shall  presently  mention  the  surviving   monuments 

which   are    suggestive        ^_ 

of  the  existence  of 
ancient  Greek  civil- 
ization in  Sicily  and 
South  Italy,  but  it  may 
be  well  first  to  point 
the  moral  of  the  im- 
portance of  this  civili- 
zation for  Roman  Italy 
in  another  way  ;  that 
is,  by  considering 
simply  the  date  at 
which  the  Roman  ter- 
ritory  began  to  ex- 


FIG.  19. — ARCHAIC  GREEK  VASES. 
Naples  Museum. 


pand  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  Latium  and  by  contrast- 
ing this  date  with  the  long  preceding  period  of  prosperity 


48  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

and   greatness  which  the   Greek  states  of  the  South  had 
enjoyed. 

The  first  steps  toward  the  Roman  conquest  of  Central 
Italy  were  not  taken  till  the  time  of  Philip  of  Macedon, 
who  overthrew  the  independence  of  the  Greek  states  of  the 
mother  country.  This  was  in  the  time  of  the  beginning  of 


FIG.  20.— GREEK  COINS  FROM  SICILY.    Naples  Museum. 

the  Samnite  wars  in  Italy  (343  B.  C. ).  The  Greek  states 
of  South  Italy  were  amalgamated  with  the  Roman  territory 
after  the  war  with  Pyrrhus,  275  B.  C.  Now  if  we  consider 
that  the  foundations  of  these  Greek  colonies  were  laid  in 
the  eighth,  seventh,  and  sixth  centuries  B.  C.,  it  will  be 
apparent  for  how  long  a  time  their  influence  in  Italy  had 
been  exerted  before  this  Roman  conquest.  Then  let  it  be 
remembered  in  addition  that  this  influence  was  much  more 
direct  and  widespread  after  the  Roman  conquest. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  ' '  Roman ' '  art  and  culture  were 
ultimately  Greek.  The  explanations  are  manifold,  and 
very  many  have  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  existence 
of  Greek  states  in  South  Italy  and  Sicily  ;  but  for  the 


Early  Italian  Art.  49 

earlier  dates  of  Italian  and  Roman  history,  say  down  to 
275  B.  C,  we  can  hardly  over-estimate  their  importance. 
Their  direct  influence  was,  of  course,  exerted  by  commerce 
and  by  contact.  An  indirect  influence  was  exerted  by 
local  transfer  from  one  point  to  another,  inside  the  limits  of 
the  native  Italic  nations,  of  the  Greek  influence  at  first  due 
to  direct  contact  and  direct  commerce. 

As  to  the  surviving  remains  of  the  Greek  states,  they 
are  either  tomb  finds  or  temple  ruins.  Among  the  tomb 
finds  we  give  the  first  importance  to  the  pottery  vases,  of 
which  mention  has  been  already  made  under  the  topic  of 
the  Etruscan  tombs.  Many  thousands  of  these  Greek 


FIG.  2i.— RUINS  OF  THE  TEMPLE  OF  HERCULES.    Selinus. 

vases  are  scattered  through  the  museums  of  Europe  which 
come  from  the  south  Italian  and  Sicilian  states.  Their 
manufacture  was  generally  abandoned  in  the  second  century 
B.  C.,  when  glass  seems  to  have  very  largely  taken  the 
place  of  pottery.  Preceding  that  date  we  find  a  series  of 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


styles  corresponding  to  the  general  sequence  of  evolution 
in  Greek  art,  but  falling  into  two  main  classes  :  the  prim- 
itive style,  using  black  figures  on  a  red  ground,  which  was 
abandoned  early  in  the  fifth  century  B.  C.,  and  the  per- 
fected style,  using  red  figures  on  a  black  ground,  which 
lasted  till  the  second  century  B.  C. 

The  figure  designs  of  the  first  class  have  the  angular 
attitudes  and  quaint  expression  common  to  other  examples 
of  primitive  Greek  art,  and  show  dependence  on  oriental 


FIG.  22. — GREEK  TEMPLE  AT  EGESTA. 

tutelage  in  various  ways.  The  perfected  style  is  sub- 
divided according  to  the  sequence  of  evolution  which  also 
holds  of  Greek  sculpture.  We  have  in  vases,  as  well  as  in 
statues,  the  grand  and  simple  style  of  the  Phidian  period 
(fifth  century  B.  C. ),  the  beautiful  style  of  the  time  of 


Early  Italian  Art. 


Praxiteles  (fourth  century  B.  C. ),  and  the  complicated  or 
ornate  style  of  the  third  and  second  centuries.  Some 
knowledge  of  this  sequence  is  also  essential  to  the  dating 
of  objects  in  other  departments  of  Italian  art,  which  always 


FIG.  23. — TEMPLE  OF  CONCORD.     Girgenti. 

reflects  the  same  essential  facts  in  all  its  various  depart- 
ments, owing  to  its  general  dependence  on  the  Greek 
movement  of  culture. 

The  Greek  coins  of  Sicily  and  Italy  are  very  numerous 
and  very  beautiful.  As  every  city  had  its  own  inde- 
pendent coinage,  the  multitude  of  these  cities  and  their 
importance  in  the  history  of  commerce  are  brought  to 
mind  by  these  objects  in  the  strongest  possible  way. 
Critics  of  art  are  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  the  Greek 
coins  are  the  most  beautiful  which  have  ever  been  struck. 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


The  bold  relief,  noble  expression  (where  heads  are  repre- 
sented), and  firm,  simple  outlines  of  the  stamped  impres- 
sions speak  for  themselves. 

Ruins  of  Greek  temples  are  especially  numerous  in 
Sicily.  At  Selinus,  in  the  southwest  angle  of  the  island, 

there  are  remains  of 
seven  massive  temples, 
all  laid  low  by  earth- 
quakes, so  that  there 
is  hardly  a  column 
standing  even  to  the 
height  of  a  few  feet. 
Among  these  temples 
there  are  three  of 
larger  dimensions  than 
the  Parthenon.  The 
largest  is  371  feet  long 
(the  Parthenon  is  228 
feet  long).  The  metope  reliefs  from  one  of  these  temples, 
which  are  now  in  the  Palermo  Museum,  are  among  the 
earliest  extant  examples  of  Greek  sculpture. 

At  Egesta,  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  island,  there 
is  a  Greek  temple  in  very  fair  preservation  as  regards  the 
portico,  entablature,  and  pediments.  It  dates  from  the 
fifth  century  B.  C.  There  are  also  fine  ruins  of  a  Greek 
theater  on  this  site. 

At  Girgenti  (the  ancient  Agrigentum),  on  the  south  shore 
of  Sicily,  about  midway  between  its  east  and  west  promon- 
tories, there  are  remains  of  seven  Greek  temples.  Of  these 
the  best  preserved  is  the  Temple  of  Concord.  A  temple  of 
Zeus  which  has  been  wholly  overthrown  by  an  earthquake 
was  of  enormous  size,  as  is  still  visible  in  the  dimensions  of 
certain  details.  It  had  a  length  of  363  feet. 


FIG.  24. — TEMPLK  OK  CERES.     Paestum. 


Early  Italian  Art. 


53 


Besides  these  temple  ruins  there  is  the  splendid  Greek 
theater  at  Taormina,  on  the  east  coast  of  Sicily.  At 
Syracuse,  which  was  the  most  important  city  of  the  island, 
the  ruins  are  less  significant. 

The  Greek  ruins  of  Italy  are  almost  wholly  limited  to 
one  site,  that  of  Paes turn  (the  ancient  Posidonia),  which 
lies  on  the  west  coast,  about  fifty  miles  south  of  Naples. 
At  Metaponto  (the  ancient  Metapontum),  on  the  Gulf  of 
Taranto,  there  are,  however,  some  Greek  ruins,  one  of 
which  has  fifteen  erect  columns. 

It  should  be  added  that  the  chance  survival  of  such  ruins 
either  in  Sicily 
or  Italy  is  a 
wholly  fortui- 
tous accident, 
which  has  no 
relation  to  the 
original  num- 
ber of  the  col- 
onies or  their 
relative  impor- 
tance. Gener- 
ally speaking, 
it  is  the  iso- 
lation or  de- 
sertion of  the 
site  which  ex- 
plains the  survival.  Where  the  later  population  has  been 
most  numerous,  there  the  greatest  destruction  has  been  the 
rule,  the  old  buildings  serving  as  a  quarry  for  later  ones. 
At  Psestum  it  is  the  malarial  atmosphere  and  consequent 
desertion  of  the  site  which  explain  the  unusual  preser- 
vation of  the  temples. 


FIG.  25. — THE  SO-CALLED  BASILICA.    Paestum. 


54 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


Here  are  found  three  very  interesting  ruins,  the  so-called 
Temple  of  Ceres,  the  so-called  Basilica,  and  the  so-called 
Temple  of  Neptune.  The  last  named  is  the  best  preserved 
and  the  most  interesting.  Its  date  is  the  sixth  century 
B.  C.  As  regards  the  present  effect  of  this  building  it  may 
almost  be  regarded  as  the  rival  of  the  Parthenon,  and  there 
is  certainly  no  other  surviving  Greek  ruin  which  can  be 


FIG.  26. — TEMPLE  OF  NEPTUNE.     Paestum. 

compared  with  it.  The  building  stone,  which  was  once 
covered  with  stucco,  is  much  coarser  than  that  of  the 
Parthenon  but  in  massive  simplicity  the  Temple  of  Nep- 
tune has  no  superior.  It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
instances  of  an  effect  of  size  and  power  independent  of 
mere  dimension.  The  length  of  the  temple  is  only  189 
feet  and  its  columns  are  only  38  feet  high.  For  a  study  of 


FIG.  27.— TEMPLE  OF  NEPTUNE,  P.CSTUM,  SHOWING  DORIC  DETAILS. 


55 


56  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

the  features  of  the  old  Greek  Doric  architecture  this  build- 
ing is  one  of  supreme  importance. 

The  columns  of  the  so-called  Basilica  are  the  most  ex- 
treme case  known  of  the  diminution  in  diameter  of  the 
Doric  shaft.  The  Temple  of  Ceres  is  in  point  of  style  and 
character  of  detail  the  least  important  of  the  three  ruins 
and  probably  is  the  latest  in  date. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    EARLY    ROMAN   ART. 

OUR  sketch  and  illustrations  of  Etruscan  art  must  serve 
to  give  some  idea  of  the  surroundings  and  culture  with 
which  the  Romans  were  in  contact  in  early  days.  The 
great  power  and  wealth  of  the  Greek  states  of  Italy  must 
not  be  overlooked  in  the  matter  of  influence,  nor  the  fact 
that  during  nearly  five  hundred  years  of  Roman  history 
(750—275  B.  C. )  they  were  of  much  greater  importance 
in  Italian  history  than  Rome  itself ;  but  they  were  not 
geographically  or  otherwise  in  direct  relations  with  this 
state,  and  their  influence  must  be  conceived  rather  as 
indirect  through  the  Etruscans  and  the  Samnites,*  as  ex- 
plained for  these  peoples. 

The  main  apparent  fact  in  early  Roman  character  is  its 
practical,  honest,  and  logical  nature  ;  averse  to  luxury, 
and  antagonistic  in  its  strictly  political  and  military 
tendencies  to  the  more  artistic  and  highly  developed 
peoples  of  the  peninsula.  lVRoman  art  was  mainly  con- 
spicuous by  its  absence  in  early  centuries  of  the  monarchy 
and  republic,  if  we  conceive  the  word  ' '  art "  as  relating  to 
the  decorative  and  luxurious  sides  of  domestic  or  of 
national  life.  Statues  and  temples  of  the  gods  there  were, 
arms  and  weapons  for  the  soldier,  implements  and  tools  for 
the  farmer,  houses  and  clothes  and  utensils  for  rich  and 
poor  ;  and  most  of  these  things,  according  to  the  practice 
of  all  ancient  nations,  must  have  had  some  fitting  artistic 

*  Much  less  is  known  of  this  people  in  the  way  of  remains  than  of  the  Etrus- 
cans.   Greek  influences  were  paramount  as  far  as  we  know  their  art. 

57 


The  Early  Roman  Art. 


59 


setting  forth  and  decorative  treatment — and  yet  rigid  econ- 
omy, stern  discipline,  legal  exactitude,  steadfast  fortitude, 
domestic  simplicity,  and  national  self-restraint  were  the 
points  of  character  most  obvious  in  the  Romans.  There 
was  no  nation  in  Italy  so  slightly  endowed  with  purely 
artistic  tastes  and  capacity,  and  none  so  gifted  with  the 
practical  and  common  sense  virtues. 


FIG.  29. — THE  CLOACA  MAXIMA.    Rome. 

It  was  this  character  which  insured  the  Romans  an 
ultimate  triumph  over  all  other  states  of  Italy  in  the 
various  contentions  and  rivalries  of  many  centuries.  They 
rose  first  as  a  small  civic  community  to  an  ascendency  over 


6o 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


their  own  Latin  tribe  and  territory  (750-650  B.  C. ).  This 
territory  did  not  begin  to  expand  outside  of  Latium  till  the 
times  of  Philip  of  Macedon  and  of  Alexander  the  Great 
(after  350  B.  C. ).  In  the  Samnite  and  Etruscan  wars,* 
which  then  began,  they  rapidly  became  masters  of  all 

Italy  between  the  northern 
Apennines  and  the  Greek 
colonies  of  the  South  (290 
B.  C. ).  These  latter  were 
also  absorbed  into  their 
political  system  after  the  wars 
with  the  Macedonian  Pyrrhus 
(275  B.  C). 

It  is  at  this  time  that  we 
begin  to  form  somewhat  more 
definite  ideas  of  what  Roman 
FIG.  3o.-i|scAN  (£ORIC)  CAPITAL.   art  now  was  by  remembering 

what    Roman    art   became. 

The  Romans  were  the  only  conquerors  of  antiquity  who 
gave  to  the  vanquished  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
victors,  f  Wisdom  and  common  sense  were  partners  of 
their  generosity  here.  Their  steps  in  this  direction  were 
never,  however,  taken  rapidly  or  suddenly.  Their  allies 
and  friends,  cities  or  individuals,  were  given  the  prefer- 
ence. There  was  a  graded  series  of  rights  and  privileges 
for  both  individuals  and  cities,  ranging  between  full 
Roman  rights  and  none  at  all.  But  the  steps  were  always 
being  ascended  in  rising  order,  the  area  and  amount  of 
Roman  privilege  were  always  widening  and  increasing,  and 
in  Italy  itself  the  Roman  citizenship  was  the  right  of  every 


*  Samnites  and  Etruscans  were  in  alliance,  but  the  wars  ate  known  in  history  as 
the  "  Samnite  wars." 

f  It  was  the  habit  of  the  Romans  never  to  ask  severer  terms  of  an,  enemy  aftei 
the  battle  was  won  than  they  did  before  it  began. 


The  Early  Roman  Art. 


61 


freeman  soon  after  B.  C.  100.  The  system  of  soldier- 
farmer  colonies  was  another  element  in  the  Romanizing 
process.  Roman  soldiers  were  not  paid  mercenaries  in 
the  time  of  the  monarchy  or  of  the  early  republic.  They 
were  citizen-farmers,  some  or  many  of  whom  were  given 
new  lands  on  the  boundaries  and  lines  of  the  new  frontier 
whenever  conquests  had  been  made.  This  was  another 
cause  and  explanation  of  the  amalgamation  which  took 


FIG.  31.— ROMAN  GLASS  FROM  THE  CRIMEA.     British  Museum. 

place  between  the  conquered  peoples  and  the  conquerors. 
All  these  explanations  are  essential  to  a  philosophic 
account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Roman  art  became 
the  Italian  and  the  Italian  art  became  the  Roman.  Thus 
we  see  that  the  knowledge  of  Etruscan  art  is  in  reality  not 
only  a  means  of  imagining  what  the  early  Roman  art  was, 


62 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


but    it  is   also  a  means  of  knowing  what  the  Roman  art 
became,   viz.,   that  of  Italy  at  large. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Mommsen's   and    Ihne's    histories   of 
Rome  are  the  best   (both  German,   both  translated). 


FIG.  32.— ROMAN  TRIUMPHAL  ARCH.     North  Africa. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    EMPIRE. 
/ 

IT  is  only  the  nineteenth  century  which  has  been  con- 
scientious in  preserving  the  monuments  of  the  past,  but  it 
is  also  like  its  predecessors  in  not  fearing  to  pull  down 
what  has  been  done  within  a  century  or  two,  a  system 
which,  when  applied  for  centuries,  leaves  very  little  to 
speak  for  any.  As  it  frequently  happens  in  our  own  time, 
so  it  was  with  the  Romans.  In  the  days  of  wealth  and 
power  the  old  buildings  were  not  good  enough  or  large 
enough  to  suit  the  new  ideas  of  the  people  and  were 
replaced  by  those  whose  ruins  have  partly  come  down  to 
our  time.  Some  of  the  walls  built  by  King  Servius 
Tullius  and  the  Etruscan  drainage  aqueduct  and  sewer 
known  as  the  Cloaca  Maxima  (Fig.  29)  are  the  chief 
visible  remains  of  the  Roman  monarchy  (750-510  B.  C). 

The  early  republic  has  been  equally  unfortunate.  The 
first  important  remains  of  Roman  construction  in  point  of 
time  are  some  of  the  aqueduct  ruins  of  the  Campagna* 
dating  about  150  B.  C. 

Meantime,  before  this  date,  still  farther  and  more  im- 
portant revolutions,  or  evolutions,  had  befallen  the  Roman 
state.  Mistress  of  Italy  after  B.  C.  275,  f  her  power  had 
become  a  standing  threat  to  that  of  the  Phenician  Carthage 
which  ruled  the  coasts  of  North  Africa  and  Eastern  Spain, 
and  the  islands  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  with  much  less 
attention  to  the  well-being  of  the  conquered  populations 


*  The  wide  and  now  mainly  deserted  plains  which  surround  the  modern  city. 

t  The  northern  Po  Valley  was  not  considered  a  part  of  Italy  till  the  time 

Caesar,  B.  C.  50.    It  was,  till  then,  Cisalpine  Gaul  ("  Gaul  this  side  the  Alps  "). 

63 


64 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


than  was  displayed  by  Rome  with  the  conquered  states  of 
Italy.  The  contrast  was  apparent  to  the  peoples  oppressed 
by  the  C  renicians,  who  in  their  turn  were  conscious  of  the 
hatred  which  their  oppressions  caused.  Both  saw  in 
Rome  the  rival  of  the  oppressor  and  consequently  the 

champion  of  the  op- 
pressed. Hence  a 
jealousy  which  led  to 
the  wars  with  Carthage 
(260-200  B.  C.), 
whose  ultimate  result 
was  Roman  supremacy 
throughout  the  whole 
western  Mediterranean 
and  over  its  shores. 
This  enormous  access 
of  power  roused  the 
jealousy  of  the  states 
of  the  Macedonian 
Greeks  which  had  suc- 
ceeded to  Alexander's 
great  oriental  empire. 
After  B.  C.  200  Rome 
thus  became  involved 
in  contentions  with 
the  Greek  Asiatic 
states,  and  with  the 
Macedonian  rulers, 
which  contentions  by 

FIG.  33.— ROMAN  BRONZE  STATUETTE  OF  Ju-    the    time    of     Julius 
PITER.     From  Hungary.     British  Museum. 

Csesar  (B.  C.  50)  had 

resulted  in  turning  all  the  countries  of  the  eastern  Mediter- 
ranean into  Roman  provinces. 


The  Development  of  the  Empire.  65 

We  know  Julius  Caesar  as  the  founder  of  the  later 
empire  and  Augustus  as  its  first  recognized  ruler.  Its 
territories  were  ultimately  (according  to  mod  desig- 


FIG.  34.— ROMAN  AQUEDUCT  IN  SOUTHERN  FRANCE.  Nimes. 

nations)  England,  South  and  West  Germany,  Austria, 
France,  Spain,  North  Africa,  Egypt,  Syria,  Asia  Minor, 
European  Turkey,  Greece,  Roumania,  and  the  Danube 
countries,  Southern  Hungary,  and,  of  course,  Italy.  As  re- 
gards the  art  of  the  Roman  Empire,  which,  as  already  ex- 
plained, is  mainly  the  only  art  of  the  Romans  now  known 
to  us,  we  must  insist  on  the  process  accomplished  through 
its  history,  which  corresponds  to  that  already  explained  for 
the  Romans  of  Italy  and  the  Italians  conquered  by  Rome. 
The  same  facts,  on  a  broader  scale,  hold  for  all  the  territo- 
ries above  named,  but  with  one  grand  distinction  between 


66 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


*  Always  excepting  Egypt,  wh 
nt  style  under  Greek  kings  and 
t  Who  had  founded  many  citi« 


the  eastern  and  the 
western  halves  of  the 
empire.  The  East  had 
a  civilization  long  an- 
tedating that  of  the 
Romans,  but  affiliated 
with  it,  not  only  by  cor- 
respondence of  deri- 
vation and  character, 
but  also  by  a  long 
series  of  transmissions 
and  expansions  to  and 
over  Italy  herself  (see 
the  chapter  on  Etrus- 
can art).  The  art  of 
the  whole  eastern 
Mediterranean  was 
Greek  after  the  time  of 
Alexander  the  Great.* 
In  Africa  the  Ro- 
mans succeeded  to  the 
heritage  of  Carthagin- 
ian civilization,  which 
had  become  itself 
much  Grecianized.  In 
Spain  the  Romans 
succeeded  to  the  heri- 
tage of  the  Phenicians 
and  the  Greeks,  f  In 
France  they  succeeded 
to  the  heritage  of 

,  which  mainly  continued  to  exhibit  her  own  independ- 
and  Roman  emperors, 
many  cities  on  the  northeast  coast. 


FIG.  35.— ROMAN  BRONZE  STATUETTE  FOUND 

IN  ENGLAND.    A  MILITARY  OFFICER. 

British  Museum. 


The  Development  of  the  Empire.  67 

Phenician  and  Greek  influences*  and  yet  in  all  these 
countries  they  were  themselves  largely  the  founders  and 
fathers  of  later  civilization,  and  for  England,  Northern 
France,  and  West  and  South  Germany,  they  were  almost 
entirely  so. 

The.  distinction  then  between  the  eastern  and  western 


FIG  36.— ROMAN  GATEWAY  IN  GERMANY.    Trier. 

parts  of  the  empire  is  that  very  largely  in  the  west  the  Ro- 
mans were  the  propagators  and  pioneers,  while  in  the  east 
they  were  the  heirs  and  the  learners.  The  case,  briefly 
stated,  is  that  the  Romans  were  the  lawyers,  the  engineers, 
the  systematizers,  and  the  pathfinders  of  the  later  centuries 
of  Mediterranean  history.  All  the  peoples  of  the  empire 
became  Roman  in  language,  f  in  governmental  systems, 


*  There  were  many  Greek  colonies  in  Southern  France,  of  which  Marseilles  was 
the  most  important.  " '  .  ' 

t  If  not  already  Greek ;  both  languages  were  commonly  known  to  educated 
people. 


68 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


and  in  rights  of  citizenship,*  and  the  Romans  themselves 
were  transformed  into  the  general  mass  of  the  population 
which  they  had  solidified  and  endowed  with  their  own  laws 
and  culture. 

It  is  only    in   this   way   that   we   can   rightly  conceive 
the  significance  and  importance  of  Roman  ruins  and  works 


FIG.  37. — ROMAN  RUINS  IN  SYRIA.     Baalbek. 

of  art  as  found  in  England,  Spain,  France,  Germany, 
Africa,  Syria,  etc.  It  is  of  great  importance  not  to  view 
these  things  as  they  have  been  viewed  in  a  more  elemen- 
tary stage  of  modern  studies — as  monuments  of  conquest, 
as  exported  works  of  art,  as  relics  of  a  foreign  domina- 
tion—  in  a  word,  as  intrusive  and  as  foreign  to  the 

*The  edict  of  Caracalla  (third  century  B.  C.)  gave  citizenship  to  all  freemen. 


FIG.  38.— ROMAN  AQUEDUCT  IN  SPAIN.    Segovia. 


70  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

countries  where  they  are  found.  They  represent,  on  the 
contrary,  the  native  civilization  and  the  native  art  of 
the  countries  in  which  they  were  made,  for  the  time  in 
which  they  were  made — as  the  result  not  of  military 
conquest  but  of  commerce  and  of  intercourse  working 
through  centuries.  The  power  of  the  Roman  did  not  lie 
in  force  of  arms  but  in  the  catholic  self-abnegation  of 
the  statesmen  and  heroes  who  conceived  of  history  as  an 
evolution  of  commerce,  not  as  a  carnage  of  rival  armies. 
Soldiers  and  legions  and  generals  there  were,  combats  and 
jealousies  of  interior  rival  forces,  and  selfishness — as  always 
in  history.  But  the  legions  of  the  empire  were  not  raised 
to  trample  on  the  liberties  of  Roman  citizens,  and  all  free- 
men were  Roman  citizens  or  so  became.  These  legions 
were  the  guardians  of  the  civilization  of  their  day.  Their 
post  was  the  frontiers  of  the  state  and  their  indirect  mission 
largely  was  to  continue  the  expansion  of  the  domestic  arts 
and  sciences  beyond  its  borders.* 

The  illustrations  through  these  immediate  pages  have 
been  chosen  as  symbols  of  the  diffusion  of  Roman  civiliza- 
tion under  the  conditions  just  explained.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  most  important  where  illustrations  from  Italy  or 
the  city  of  Rome  are  concerned,  to  look  at  them  as  repre- 
senting buildings  or  objects  which  once  covered  all  the 
territories  named. 

The  most  marvelous  witnesses  to  the  character  of  Roman 
civilization  are  the  Roman  ruins  east  of  the  Jordan  in 
Syria,  where  there  are  more  Roman  ruins  to-day  than 
in  the  entire  area  of  the  old  Roman  world  otherwise 
considered — the  explanation  being  simply  that  the  Bedouin 

*  The  Roman  legions  were  largely  raised  in  the  countries  where  they  habitually 
served.  They  were  British,  German,  or  Gallic,  as  the  case  might  be,  but  often 
subject  to  transfer.  It  is  well  known  that  they  were  much  employed  on  the 
public  works. 


The  Development  of  the  Empire. 


Arabs  now  dwelling  in  this  country,  and  whose  tribes  have 
had  it  in  possession  since  the  seventh  century  A.  D.,  live 
in  tents  and  have  never  treated  the  ruins  as  quarries 
for  building  material.  It  is  this  use  of  Roman  ruins  as 
quarries  by  the  later  populations  of  all  other  territories 
named  which  has  caused  their  destruction  and  disappear- 
ance, so  that  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  now  the  territories  of 


FIG.  39.— ROMAN  RUIN.     East  Jordan  Territory. 

England,  France,  Spain,  or  North  Africa,  as  having  once 
exhibited  the  same  wonderful  number  of  constructions 
which  the  east  Jordan  territory  still  bears  to  view. 


CHAPTER  V. 

GENERAL  REVIEW  OF  THE  ROMAN  ART. 

IT  was  in  the  second  century  B.  C.  that  growing  wealth 
at  Rome,  vast  territorial  power,  and  the  influence  of  the 
Greek  Macedonian  and  Greek  Asiatic  states  brought  about 
the  first  decided  break  with  the  old  conservative  traditions 
and  with  the  old  Roman  indifference  to  art  for  its  own 
sake.  After  the  destruction  of  Corinth  by  the  Roman  gen- 
eral Mummius  (146  B.  C. )  enormous  numbers  of  Greek 
statues  were  carried  off  to  Rome.  A  certain  number  of  the 
famous  statues  of  the  modern  Italian  museums  doubtless 
found  their  way  to  Italy  at  this  time.  Greek  philosophy 
and  Greek  literature  were  cultivated  with  more  and  more 
attention.  It  was,  above  all,  the  general  luxury,  refine- 
ment, and  ease  of  living  in  the  Alexandrian  states  which 
made  headway  at  Rome  and  which  involved  that  interest  in 
art  which  is  often  professed  by  the  man  of  wealth  as  a 
matter  of  display  and  ostentation,  or  at  least  of  necessary 
fashion. 

The  Greek  art  of  the  mother  country  was  at  this  time 
itself  in  a  condition  of  relative  decadence,  not  of  produc- 
tivity or  technical  capacity,  but  of  simplicity  of  taste 
and  grandeur  of  style.  In  sculpture  the  taste  of  the 
Roman  therefore  affected  the  realistic  tendencies  and 
minute  technical  perfection  of  the  Medici  Venus  and  of  the 
Dying  Gaul,  of  the  Laocoon  group,  the  Belvedere  Torso, 
and  similar  works.*  In  the  statues  of  Greek  subjects 

*Cf.  "A  History  of  Greek  Art,"  by  F.  B.  Tarbell. 


FIG.  40. — GRECO-ROMAN  RELIEF  FROM  THE  DECORATION  OF  A  FOUNTAIN. 

LATERAN  MUSEUM.    A  NYMPH  FEEDING  THE  INFANT 

PLUTUS  FROM  HER  HORN  OF  PLENTY. 


74  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

which  began  to  be  made  more  and  more  in  Italy  two 
tendencies  were  therefore  apparent,  either  that  minute  and 
sometimes  over-anxious  attention  to  minor  details,  which  is 


FIG.  41. — FAUN.    COPY  AFTER  PRAXITELES.    Capitol,  Rome. 

natural  to  the  taste  of  the  amateur  and  the  dilettante^  or 
else  a  multiplication  of  copies  of  some  given  type  in  the 
rapid  and  mechanical  execution  of  the  artisan  or  stone- 


General  Review  of  Roman  Art.  75 

cutter.  It  must  be  remembered  that  most  of  the  statues 
from  which  we  derive  our  knowledge  of  Greek  art  were 
such  copies  made  during  the  Roman  imperial  period  or  in 
the  time  of  the  late  republic.  At  all  events,  the  multipli- 
cation of  the  Greek  mythological  subjects  in  sculpture 
through  all  the  western  territories  of  the  empire  was  one 
result  of  its  existence. 

In  spite  of  the  qualifications  which  a  conscientious  critic 
must  make  as  to  the  productions  of  Roman-Greek  art 
in  face  of  the  Parthenon  marbles  and  similar  works,  an 
amazing  degree  of  real  beauty  and  of  pure  artistic  taste 
continued  to  assert 
itself  in  these  later 
days.  This  is  es- 
pecially apparent  in 
the  collections  of 
the  Naples  Museum, 
which,  coming  so 
largely  from  two 
excavated  towns  of 
the  first  century 
A.  D.  (Herculane- 
um  and  Pompeii), 
are  a  fair  test  of  the 
taste  of  Southern 
Italy  at  -this  time. 
Both  of  these  places, 
it  must  however 
be  remembered, 

had     been     Greek  FIG.  42.— BUST  OF  JULIUS  CESAR.    Rome. 

colonies    originally. 

It  must  be  said  in  general  that  the  Roman  imperial  art 
was  most  successful  in  the  purest  sense  when  it  was  least 


76 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


pretentious  and  least  ostentatious.  The  small  bronze 
statuettes  of  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum  are  examples 
of  this  point. 

In    decorative   art,    whether    of   utensils   and   furniture, 

or  the  sculptured  carv- 
ing of  public  buildings, 
or  the  painted  frescoes 
of  ordinary  domestic 
houses,  the  highest 
perfection  of  taste  was 
displayed.  The 
painted  frescoes  of  the 
Pompeiian  houses  in 
the  Naples  Museum 
are  an  inexhaustible 
mine  of  vigorous  de- 
sign and  beautiful  con- 
ception, but  mainly  of 
a  playful  and  sportive 
rather  than  of  a  seri- 
ous taste. 

•  A  characteristic  and 
native  expression  was 
found  in  the  Romar 
portr  a  it-sculpture 
The  art  of  portraiture 
was  not  affected  £y 
the  Greeks,  whose 
sculpture  was  ori^i- 
nally  devoted  to  na  ;- 
ious  purposes,  -  tid 
rarely  abandoned  its  traditions  on  this  point,  but  the  p  ac- 
tical,  business-like,  and  common  sense  nature  of  the  rlo- 


FIG.  43.— BRONZE  STATUETTE. 
Naples. 


VENUS. 


General  Review  of  the  Roman  Art.  77 

man  found  its  own  peculiar  expressions  in  portrait- 
sculpture,  and  achieved  its  best  original  work  in  this 
department. 

It  is  especially,  however,  in  architecture  that  the  inde- 
pendent greatness  of  the  Roman  was  apparent.  In  this 
practical  and  necessary  art  he  has  left  astounding  evidences 
of  his  boldness,  firmness,  and  grandeur  of  character,  and 
also  of  his  attention  to  the  material  comfort  and  healthful 
lives  of  large  masses  of  city  population. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ROMAN    ARCHITECTURE    AND    PAINTING. 

WE  have  seen  that  the  Etruscan  and  early  Roman 
temples  were  copies  of  the  Greek,  and  this  naturally  holds 
of  the  temples  of  the  empire.  The  most  important  Roman 
temple  which  has  been  perfectly  preserved  (but  in  the 
exterior  only)  is  the  one  at  Nimes  in  Southern  France, 
which  is  there  traditionally  known  as  the  Maison  Carrte 
(the  "square  house").  The  charm  of  this  building  (first 
or  second  century  A.  D.)  is  indescribable  to  those  who 
have  not  seen  it  and  eludes  a  photograph.  Its  beauty  lies 
in  the  optical  mystifications  caused  by  various  slight 
intentional  irregularities  of  construction  similar  to  those 
found  in  the  Greek  temples.  The  origin  of  the  town  of 
Nimes  in  a  settlement  of  Alexandrian  Greeks  (the  Greeks 
were  otherwise  largely  settled  in  Southern  France)  may 
be  one  explanation  of  the  artistic  beauty  of  this  building. 

In  Rome  itself  the  best  preserved  temple  of  Greek  style 
is  the  small  Ionic  Temple  of  Fortuna  Virilis.  The  temple 
built  in  honor  of  the  emperor  Antoninus  and  his  wife 
Faustina,  which  was  completed  under  Marcus  Aurelius 
(second  century  A.  D. ),  has  lost  its  pediment  and  is  now 
surmounted  by  the  facade  of  a  Christian  church.  The 
sites  of  several  other  magnificent  temples  of  the  city  are 
marked  by  isolated  groups  of  columns.  In  Italy  at  large, 
the  most  important  surviving  temple  buildings  are  those  at 
Assisi  and  at  Pola.*  A  little  temple  at  Tivoli  near  Rome 

*  The  province  of  Istria,  in  which  Pola  is  situated,  although  now  belonging  to 
Austria,  was  a  portion  of  Roman  Italy. 

78 


Roman  Architecture  and  Painting. 


79 


and  the  small  Temple  of  Vesta  (so-called)  in  the  city 
are  picturesque  ruins  of  circular  shrines  in  fair  preserva- 
tion. A  few  columns  at  Athens  mark  the  site  of  the 
colossal  temple  of  the  Olympian  Jupiter  completed  under 


FIG.  44.— THE  "  MAISON  CARREK."    Nfmes. 

Hadrian  (second  century  A.  D. ).  The  most  magnificent 
temple  ruins  of  the  whole  Roman  world  for  size  and  also 
for  the  colossal  dimensions  of  the  building  blocks  are  those 
of  Baalbek  in  Syria,  a  day's  journey  north  of  the  road  be- 
tween Beyrout  and  Damascus  (second  century  A.  D.). 
The  east  Jordan  territory  is  full  of  the  ruins  of  Roman  tem- 
ples. Among  these  one  at  Jerash  (Gerasa)  has  the  most 
imposing  dimensions.  Still  another  large  group  of  ruins  is 
found  at  Palmyra  in  the  Syrian  Desert,  east  of  Damascus,  a 
reminder  of  the  days  of  Queen  Zenobia  and  the  emperor 


FIG.  45. — ARCHITECTURAL  FRIEZE  DETAIL.     LATERAN  MUSEUM. 
FROM  TRAJAN'S  FORUM. 


Roman  Architecture  and  Painting. 


81 


Aurelian,  as  well  as  of  the  former  glories  and  high  civil- 
ization of  the  now  desolate  territories  of  Western  Asia. 

A  comparison  of  these  various  buildings  with  the  corre- 
sponding ruins  of  old  Greek  time  shows  them  to  be  of  less 
refinement  in  the  masonry  fitting  and  cutting  and  far  less 
carefully  elaborated  in  the  details  of  construction.*  A  fre- 
quent departure  from  the  beautiful  Greek  plan  with  the 
surrounding  colonnade  is  found  in  the  limitation  of  the 
Roman  temple  portico  to  the  front,  while  the  sides  and 
rear  are  walls  with  ' '  engaged ' '  columns  ;  semi-attached, 
that  is,  to  the  wall  surface,  so  as  to  simulate  a  portico. 

Departures    from    the    old    Greek    refinement   are   also 
illustrated  in  the  occasional  abandonment  of  the   curving 
outlines  of  the  column, 
and  of  its  flutings,  one 
or  both. 

An  important  dis- 
tinction lies  in  the  use 
by  the  old  Doric 
Greek  temples  of  col- 
ored surface  ornament. 
These  later  buildings, 
on  the  other  hand, 
depend  on  a  florid  and 
elaborate  but  boldly 
picturesque  execution 
of  projected  carving.  The  prevailing  ' '  order ' '  is  the 
Corinthian.  The  Ionic  order,  when  found,  is  of  relatively 
inferior  quality  as  regards  the  grace  and  refinement  of  the 
capitals  and  other  details.  There  is  no  temple  now  known 
of  the  Roman  period  which  employed  the  Doric  or  Tuscan 


FIG.  46.— TEMPLE  OF  FORTUNA  VIRILIS. 
Rome. 


*  Notwithstanding  its  picturesque  charm  the  materials  and  masonry  details  of 
the  Maison  Carree  cannot  be  compared  with  those  of  the  Parthenon. 


82 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


FIG.  47. — TEMPLE  OF  ANTONINUS  AND 
FAUSTINA.    Rome. 


order.  The  dominance 
of  the  Corinthian  order 
in  Roman  monuments 
is,  of  course,  explained 
by  the  fact  that  it  was 
the  favored  and  char- 
acteristic order  of  the 
Alexandrian  Greeks. 
The  capital  known  as 
' '  Composite, ' '  which 
was  much  used  by  the 
Romans,  has  modified 

Ionic   volutes   at  the  top   but   otherwise  shows   the   usual 

acanthus  leaves  (Fig.   49). 

In  buildings  which  employed  the  arch   and  dome,    the 

Romans  showed   their 

own  characteristic 

boldness     and     force. 

Constructions  like  the 

aqueducts,     which 

made    no     pretensions 

to    artistic    character, 

are    fine    examples    of 

the     powerful     artistic 

effect    of    rough     ma- 
sonry   in     elementary 

forms  of  construction. 

Aside  from  many  ruins 

on  the  Campagna  near 

Rome,   and   of  far  su- 
perior effect,  the  great 

aqueducts   of   Segovia 

in  Spain  and  of  NimeS          FIG.  48.— TEMPLE  OF  MINERVA.    Assisi. 


Roman  Architecture  and  Painting, 


in  France  (the  Pont  du  Card)  deserve  preeminent  men- 
tion. These  aqueducts  are  an  instance  of  the  attention 
paid  to  the  material  comfort  and  hygiene  of  great  cities 
which  put  our  modern  civilization  to  the  blush.  The  city 
of  Rome  is  now  mainly  supplied  with  water  by  three  of  its 
original  thirteen  aqueducts,  and  the  city  of  Bologna  now 
obtains  its  water 
through  a  restoration 
of  its  ancient  aqueduct. 
It  is  said  that  hundreds 
of  provincial  Roman 
cities  were  more 
abundantly  supplied 
with  water  than  is  the 
modern  city  of  Lon- 
don. 

This  abundance  of 
the  water  supply  in 
Roman  cities  was  con- 
nected with  a  system 
of  public  baths  of  great 
magnificence  and  great 
utility.  The  baths 
were  also  club-houses  for  the  people,  which  contained 
lounging  and  reading  rooms,  libraries,  and  gymnasiums. 
Large  numbers  of  the  statues  of  the  modern  Roman  collec- 
tions were  found  in  their  ruins,  showing  that  they  were 
also  museums  and  galleries  of  art.  Outside  of  Rome  the 
recently  excavated  ruins  at  Bath  in  England  are  the  most 
important  remains  of  this  class  of  building.  In  Rome  the 
ruins  of  the  Baths  of  Caracalla  are  now  the  most  imposing 
and  originally  accommodated  sixteen  hundred  bathers. 
The  statues  now  in  Naples  which  belonged  to  the  Farnese 


FIG.  49.— ROMAN  COMPOSITE  (CORINTHIAN) 
CAPITAL. 


84 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


Collection,  like  the  Farnese  Hercules,  Farnese  Bull  group, 
etc. ,  were  found  in  the  Baths  of  Caracalla.  The  Baths  of 
Diocletian  are  next  in  order  of  present  importance  and 


FIG.  50.— RUINED  APARTMENT  IN  THE  BATHS  OF  CARACALLA. 

were  partly  turned  into  a  Christian  church  by  Michael 
Angelo.  The  Baths  of  Titus  were  in  fair  preservation 
in  the  time  of  Raphael  and  his  decorative  designs  in 
the  Vatican  Palace  were  borrowed  from  them  (the  Loggie 
frescoes).  Here  was  found  the  Laocoon  group  of  the 


Roman  Architecture  and  Painting. 


Vatican.  The  Baths  of  Pompeii  are  well-preserved  struc- 
tures, showing  all  arrangements  of  the  antique  system 
for  steam  and  hot  baths,  plunges,  etc.,  and  the  various 
refinements  which  were  handed  down  to  the  Russians  and 
the  Turks  from  the  Roman  Byzantine  system  and  which 
are  now  known  and  practiced  under  foreign  names. 

The  basilicas  were  great  halls  assigned  to  the  use  of  the 
merchants  and  of  the  courts  of  justice  and  were  found  in 
every  city.  The  Basilica  of  Constantine  at  Rome  is  the 


FIG.  51.— THE  BASILICA  OF  CONSTANTINE.    Rome. 

most  notable  ruin  of  this  class  as  regards  present  dimension. 
For   Roman  palaces  the  most  interesting  ruin   is   that 
of   Diocletian's    palace    at    Spalatro    in    Dalmatia    (fourth 
century  A.   D.). 


86 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


The  triumphal  arches  were  memorials  of  victory  and 
successful  wars,  under  which  the  processions  of  triumph 
took  their  way.  There  are  various  ruins  of  this  class  in 
Italy  and  elsewhere,  the  most  important  being  those  of 


FIG.  52.— TRIUMPHAL  ARCH  OF  SEPTIMIUS  SEVERUS.    Rome. 

Rome — the  Arches  of  Constantine,  of  Septimius  Severus, 
and  of  Titus. 

The  most  imposing  of  all  Roman  constructions  were  the 
enormous  amphitheaters,  built  for  the  spectacles  of  the 
gladiatorial  combats  and  the  fights  of  wild  animals.  Next 
to  the  Colosseum  at  Rome,  begun  by  Vespasian  and  com- 
pleted by  Titus  (80  A.  D.),  the  most  splendid  ruins  of  this 
class  are  at  Nimes  and  Aries  in  France  and  at  Verona 
in  North  Italy. 


Roman  Architecture  and  Painting. 


In  all  these  buildings  (except  the  aqueducts)  a  method 
and  style  of  ornament  were  originally  employed*  which 
were  revived  by  the  Italians  of  modern  history  in  the 
Renaissance  period  a  thousand  years  after  they  had  ap- 
parently passed  into  oblivion.  This  ornamental  style,  now 
known  as  the  Renaissance,  has  had  so  wide  a  vogue 


FIG.  53.— THE  COLOSSEUM.     Rome. 

in  modern  architecture  that  a  distinct  idea  as  to  its  Roman 
origin  and  use  is  a  really  essential  thing  for  every 
educated  person. 

We  have  seen  what  debt  the  Romans  owed  the  Greeks 
and  yet  how  foreign  to  Greek  art  was  their  system  of  arch 


*  In  the  ruins  of  the  baths  and  basilicas,  which  were  built  of  brick  faced  with 
marble,  the  marble  panels  have  been  torn  away  and  the  ornamental  system  does 
not  now  appear. 


88  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

and  dome  construction.  To  this  arch  construction  the 
Roman  applied  the  Greek  construction  as  an  ornamental 
mask  and  facing.  It  is  common  to  charge  any  use  of 
"engaged"  columns*  to  the  score  of  the  Romans  as 
a  departure  from  Greek  ideas  and  usage,  and  yet  we 
see  from  engravings  of  the  Erechtheum  at  Athens,  which 
were  made  in  the  eighteenth  century,  that  one  portion  of  it 
was  decorated  with  ' '  engaged  ' '  columns.  The  same  use 
appears  in  the  Choragic  Monument  of  Lysicrates  at 
Athens.  These  instances  in  Greek  survivals  make  it 
practically  certain  that  the  system  passed  into  Italy 
through  the  Alexandrian  Greeks.  It  is  not  a  use  of  the 
columnar  form  to  be  commended  in  theory,  as  it  violates 
constructional  truth  and  its  occasional  appearance  in  Greek 
monuments  of  the  later  period  only  shows,  what  we  other- 
wise know,  that  a  relative  decline  of  taste  rapidly  followed 
the  completion  of  the  Parthenon. 

In  Roman  art  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  results  of 
using  the  "engaged"  columns  were  picturesque  and 
the  contrasts  of  line  harmonious.  It  is  a  difficult  matter  to 
pass  judgment  critically  without,  on  the  one  hand,  yield- 
ing a  point  which  is  very  much  to  be  emphasized,  viz. ,  the 
desirability  of  constructional  truth  in  building ;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  committing  the  absurdity  of  condemning 
wholesale  some  of  the  finest  architectural  monuments  of  the 
world.  The  easiest  way  out  of  the  difficulty  is  to  treat  the 
matter  historically.  Criticism  is  for  the  present ;  history  is 
for  the  past. 

In  the  Roman  ornamental  system  we  observe  first  the 
use  of  the  ' '  engaged ' '  column  as  found  in  temples,  that  is, 
as  a  simulated  portico  (Figs.  44  and  46).    It  appears  again 
in  arch  constructions  as  an  ornamental  framework  support- 
columns  used,  not  tor  actuai  porticoes,  but  for  surface  wall  ornaments. 


Roman  Architecture  and  Painting. 


89 


ing  simulated  entablatures.  These  entablatures  are  fre- 
quently seen  jutting  forward  so  as  to  correspond  with 
the  projecting  surface  of  the  columns  (Fig.  52).  In  late 
imperial  art,  as  in  the  Renaissance  decadence,  these  breaks 
were  inordinately  multiplied  and  exaggerated.  Finally, 
the  system  of  gables,  pointed  or  rounded  or  broken  at  the 
center  to  surmount  niches,  doors,  and  windows,  is  an 
obvious  adaptation  of  the  shape  of  the  Greek  temple 
pediment  to  decorative  uses  (Fig.  39).  This  also  was 
probably  first  devised  by  the  Alexandrian  Greeks,  as  there 
are  signs  of  its  former  use  on  the  Tower  of  the  Winds 
at  Athens.  The  most  extravagant  and  corrupt  instances  of 
the  gable  ornament  are  found  in  the  late  Roman  buildings 
of  Syria;  at  Palmyra,  in  the  east  Jordan  country  and  in 


FIG.  54.— COURT  OF  A  POMPEIIAN  HOUSE. 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


the  rock  tombs  of  Petra  (.north  of  the  Sinai  Peninsula). 
The  domestic  architecture  of  the  Roman  period  is  best 

known  to  us  through   the  buried  town  of  Pompeii,  near 

Naples.  The  ashes  of 
Vesuvius,  whose  vol- 
canic eruption  in  the 
year  79  A.  D.  buried 
this  town,  have  pre- 
served its  dwelling 
houses  in  marvelous 
condition  until  the 
excavations  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nine- 
teenth centuries.  The 
town  was  a  small  pro- 
vincial one,  and  though 
it  was  apparently  much  , 
affected  by  the  Romans 
as  a  pleasure  resort  and 
watering  place,  the 

FIG.  55.— POMPEIIAN  FLOOR  MOSAIC.    "Be-       biiildinp's  rertainlv  can- 
ware  of  the  Dog."     Naples  Museum. 

not  have  compared  in 

dimension  or  height  with  those  of  Rome,  where  we  know 
that  houses  of  six  stories  were  found.  None  in  Pompeii 
were  more  than  two  stories  high  on  the  line  facing  the 
street.  When  built  on  a  declivity  we  find  occasionally 
a  third  story  in  the  rear.  It  is  only  in  one  or  two  cases 
that  the  second  story  has  been  preserved.  This  general 
destruction  of  the  upper  story  is  due  to  the  charring  of  the 
timber  beams  and  the  pressure  of  the  superincumbent  vol<-  \ 
canic  ashes.  The  general  arrangements  of  the  ancient' 
dwelling  houses  are,  however,  well  represented.  Like  the 
domestic  oriental  buildings  of  our  own  time,  they  were  ab- 


Roman  Architecture  and  Painting. 


solutely  unpretentious  in  exterior  appearance  and  with  few 
windows  opening  on  the  streets.  Each  house  was  built 
about  a  court  or  a  series  of  courts"  on  which  the  small 
apartments  opened.  In  many  cases  the  street  front  was 


FIG.  56.— POMPEIIAN  WALL  PAINTING.    Naples  Museum. 

devoted    to    shops,    disconnected    with    the    house    and 
separately  rented. 

The  great  interest  of  the  Pompeiian  houses  lies  in 
their  painted  decorations,  not  only  on  account  of  their 
beauty  but  also  because  they  were  the  work  of  ordinary 
artisans  and  illustrate  the  artistic  capacities  of  common 


92  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

workmen  of  that  day.  Most  of  the  important  frescoes 
have  been  moved  to  the  Naples  Museum.  They  lose  a 
certain  portion  of  their  brilliancy  soon  after  excavation,  but 
the  colors  are  still  warm  in  effect  and  many  are  even 


FIG.  57.— POMPEIIAN  WALL  PAINTING.    Naples  Museum. 

bright.  The  pictures  themselves  are  in  many  cases  copies 
of  more  important  ones  by  superior  artists,  which  have 
been  destroyed,  and  represent  nearly  all  that  we  know,  by 
survivals,  of  the  earlier  Greek  painting.  A  number  of  very 
beautiful  frescoes  have,  however,  also  been  found  in  Rome. 


Roman  Architecture  and  Painting. 


93 


The  execution  of  these  pictures  was  offhand  and  rapid, 
as  natural  to  plaster  decoration,  and  in  details  we  fre- 
quently find  the  slips  and  carelessness  of  rapid  artisan 
work.  On  the  other  hand,  they  bespeak  an  amazing 
fertility  of  invention  and  capacity  for  rapid  execution  of  the 
most  beautiful  motives  and  poses.  The  subjects  of  these 
paintings  correspond  to  the  taste  of  the  later  periods  of 
Greek  art  for  playful  and  amatory  themes  drawn  from 
Greek  mythology,  although  there  are  other  and  many 
scenes  from  daily  antique  life  and  its  surroundings.  Many 
of  them  are  in  large  or  life-size  dimensions.  On  the 
plastered  surfaces  color 
was  universally  em- 
ployed where  no  pic- 
tures are  found.  The 
warm  dull  red  known 
as  "Pompeiian  red" 
and  orange  yellow 
were  much  used.  The 
columns  of  the  porti- 
coes, which  universally 
inclose  the  interior 
courts,  were  stuccoed 


FIG.  58.— ROMAN  MOSAIC.     THE  DRINKING 
DOVES.      Capitol,  Rome. 

and  painted  in  the  same  bright  colors,  red  and  yellow. 
In  the  more  important  houses,  bright  mosaic  pictures 
made  of  small  cubes  of  colored  glass  or  variously  colored 
small  cubes  of  stone  are  frequently  found.  Some  were 
used  for  floor  decorations,  others  for  niches  or  small  wall 
pictures.  The  most  important  of  these,  and  the  most 
important  survival  of  ancient  pictorial  art,  is  the  large  floor 
mosaic  now  in  the  Naples  Museum,  which  represents  the 
battle  of  Issus^  the  victory  of  Alexander  the  Great  over  the 
Persian  king,  Darius.  Among  the  frescoes  found  in  or 


94  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

near  Rome,  the  small  painting  now  in  the  Vatican  known 
as  the  "  Aldobrandini  Wedding,"  from  the  modern  villa  on 
whose  grounds  it  was  discovered,  is  the  most  famous. 
Some  other  remarkable  cases  of  landscape  painting  have 
been  found  in  Rome  in  recent  years.  The  mosaic  in  the 
Capitol  Museum  of  the  "Drinking  Doves"  also  deserves 
especial  mention.  Beautiful  mosaic  floorings  have  been 
found  in  many  of  the  territories  which  the  empire  em- 
braced— many  in  England,  many  in  North  Africa,  etc. 
A  number  of  these  are  in  the  British  Museum. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ROMAN    DECORATIVE    ART    AND    SCULPTURE. 

AGAIN  starting  from  Pompeii  as  the  main  center  of  such 
finds,  we  have  to  mention  the  wealth  of  utensils  and  furni- 
ture of  daily  life  which  is  in  the  Naples  Museum.  Natu- 
ally  it  is  the  bronzes  and  metals  which  have  survived. 

othing  is  left  of  the  luxurious  upholstery  and  wooden 
'urniture  which  the  paintings  illustrate.  In  the  bronze 
vases,  tripods,  lamps,  and  utensils  of  the  Naples  Museum 
we  again  learn  how  much  taste  and  fine  art  adorned  the 
lives  of  the  every-day  people  of  antiquity.  Constant 
variety  of  invention  and  originality  of  designs  are  united 
with  constant  attention  to  use  and  structural  form.  The 
ornament  emphasizes  and  develops  the  construction.  In 
the  pitcher-shaped  vases  it  is,  for  instance,  the  handle 
itself  which  forms  the  ornamental  motive  or  else  it  is  the 
joints  of  its  attachment.  In  the  tripods,  tables,  and  settees 
the  feet  and  legs  and  joints  are  the  points  or  lines  of  the 
ornament.  These  various  objects  again  illustrate  the  way 
in  which  Greek  art  had  permeated  the  life  of  Italy  and  its 
dependent  provinces  and,  with  slight  distinctions  as  to 
style,  would  equally  well  illustrate  the  art  of  the  centuries 
before  and  after  the  time  of  the  Pompeiian  pieces.  The 
bronze  weights,  finely  executed  in  the  shape  of  human 
heads,  are  an  instance  of  the  fertile  devices  for  combining 
use  with  beauty. 

Utensils  similar  to  those  of  Pompeii  have  been  otherwise 
most  largely  found  in  Etruscan  tombs,  but  this  simply 

95 


96 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


means  that,  for  reasons  unknown  to  us,  the  fashions  of  in- 
terment among  the  Greeks  themselves  chose  other  objects 
for  the  burials.  Aside  from  burial  finds  it  is  a  rare  occur- 
rence that  such  objects  have  been  found  outside  of  Pompeii 
and  Herculaneum.*  A  unique  discovery  was  made,  how- 
ever, near  Hildesheim  in  Germany,  in  1869,  of  nearly  a 
hundred  pieces  of  the  elaborately  decorated  silver  table  serv- 


FIG.  59. — POMPEIIAN  STREET,  AS  EXCAVATED. 

ice  of  a  Roman  officer  or  general.     It  is  supposed  to  date 

from  the  defeat  of  the  Roman  legions  under  Varus,  near  this 

place,  in  the  year  9  A.  D.    This  find  is  in  the  Berlin  Museum. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  objects  among  all  those 

*  Herculaneum  is  a  closely  adjacent  ancient  city  but  it  was  buried  under  vol- 
canic deposits  which  have  hardened  into  solid  rock.  Almost  nothing  has  been 
done  here  in  excavation  since  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  on  account  of 
the  difficulty  of  mining  through  this  rock. 


Roman  Decorative  Art  and  Sculpture. 


97 


found  at  Pompeii  are  the  carpenters'  and  workmen's 
tools,  surgical  instruments,  gardening  implements,  etc. 
Although  these  do  not  come  under  the  head  of  art,  they 
have  an  equal  or  greater  value  in  stimulating  the  imagina- 
tion to  resurrect  the  life  of  the  ancients  and  it  is  mainly  for 
this  purpose  that  we  study  their  art.  The  forms  are 
largely  the  types  of  those  in  use  to-day. 

Decorated  pottery  like  that  of  the  Greek  vases  (Fig.  10) 
was  not  used  after  the  second  century  B.  C. ,  and  is  conse- 
quently not  found  at  Pompeii.  The  pottery  of  the  Roman 
period,  found  in  all 
countries  of  the  empire, 
was  the  so-called 
"Samian"  (aside  from 
the  coarser  and  ordinary 
ware).  This  Samian 
ware  is  of  a  fine  red 
paste  decorated  with 
molded  or  pressed  de- 
signs, but  it  has  no  great 
artistic  value. 

The  use  of  the  finer 
early  Greek  pottery  was 
displaced  largely  by 
glass,  which  was  not 
very  familiar  to  the  Greeks  of  the  fifth  century  B.  C. 
Glass  manufacture  was  an  oriental  and  especially  an  Egyp- 
tian art  which  spread  to  the  Phenicians  and  was  much 
cultivated  in  Syria.  Here  were  many  of  the  important 
factories  throughout  the  time  of  the  empire  and  even  in  the 
early  Middle  Ages.  Glass  manufacture  was  independently 
cultivated  in  all  territories  of  the  empire  also,  and  its  forms 
and  colors  rival  those  of  the  modern  Venetian  glass,  which 


FIG.  60. — POMPEIIAN  BRONZE  LAMPS. 
Naples  Museum. 


98 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


is  a  traditional  survival  of  this  ancient  art  (Fig.  31).*  It 
was  a  favored  article  for  the  interments  and  many  beautiful 
specimens  have  thus  survived.  The  ' '  Portland  Vase ' '  of 
the  British  Museum  is  the  most  celebrated  instance.  The 
finest  single  collection  of  ancient  glass  is  the  Slade  Collec- 
tion of  the  British  Museum,  but  the  New  York  Museum 
possesses  the  best  collection  of  the  whole  world,  next  to 
this.f 
\  We  may  finally  return  to  the  Roman  sculpture  to  ob- 


FIG.  61. — POMPEIIAN  WEIGHTS.     Naples  Museum. 

serve  that  the  reputation  of  individual  busts  or  statues  is 
rather  owing  to  the  fame  of  the  personalities  represented, 

*  Venice  is  a  direct  connecting  link  with  antiquity,  haying  been  founded  in  the 
fifth  century  A.  D.  It  preserved  its  autonomy  until  the  times  of  Bonaparte. 

t  Its  best  pieces  belong  to  the  series  gathered  by  the  Parisian  expert  Gharvet, 
but  there  is  also  an  enormous  collection  of  Roman  glass  from  Cyprus. 


Roman  Decorative  Art  and  Sculpture. 


99 


among  whom  nearly  all  the  ^reat  Roman  statesmen  and 
emperors  are  included,  than  to  special  distinction  in  work- 
manship. The  merit  of  the  execution  and  the  obvious 
fidelity  to  nature  are  marvelously  uniform  and  marvelously 
good.  The  largest  collections  are  naturally  in  Rome  and 
Naples,  and  the  Louvre  at  Paris  stands  next  in  this  depart- 


FIG.  62.— A  POET  HOLDING  A  TRAGIC  THEATRICAL  MASK,  AND  A  MUSE. 
Relief.     Lateran,  Rome. 

ment.  The  most  interesting  portraits  are  those  of  poor 
people  made  by  ordinary  artisans,  because  they  best 
exhibit  the  talent  of  the  people  at  large  rather  than  that  of 
some  artist  employed  by  a  person  of  distinction. 

The  grand  point,  in  fact,  which  distinguishes  ancient  art 
from  modern  is  the  surpassing  excellence  of  the  ordinary 
popular  art,  and  this  excellence  is  not  only  mechanical  and 


100 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


technical  but  also  that  of  observation,  of  patient  labor,  of 
simplicity,  and  of  the  ability  to  distinguish  the  thing  which 
is  characteristic  and  essential  from  that  which  is  transient 
and  unimportant. 

Although  the  study  of  original  Greek  art  is  so  largely 
made  through  Roman  copies  that  we  may  feel  disposed  to 

hurry  over  this  por- 
tion of  the  subject 
when  the  Roman 
period  itself  is  in  ques- 
tion, we  must  still  say, 
after  all  necessary  dis- 
tinctions have  been 
drawn  regarding  the 
superior  merit  of 
earlier  Greek  works 
and  the  various  signs 
of  relative  decadence 
in  the  times  of  the 
empire,  that  the  statu- 
ary and  relief  art  of 
Roman  antiquity  in 
its  minor  works,  in  its 

»-:;v  artisan    copies,    in   its 

«£••.•!.''>'.  popular  productions, 

'- ••' ';'-:    :;i  is    a    most    marvelous 

instance  of  the  possi- 

^      ^w!?*^  bilities  and  true  great- 

ness of  the  average 
man  under  favorable 

FIG.  63.— BRONZE  STATUE  OF  DRUSUS.  conditions. 

Naples  Museum. 

How  favorable  these 
conditions  were  to  the  art  of  sculpture  we  must  not,  how- 


Roman  Decorative  Axttand\Sc>i?ptur*e\  I-CM 

ever,  forget.  The  enormous  amount  of  work  done  was 
one  main  condition  of  its  technical  excellence.  This  again 
is  explained  by  a  large  popular  demand. 

In  spite  of  the  inroads  of  skepticism  and  the  weakening 


FIG.  64. — ROMAN  PORTRAIT  BUSTS.     Capitol,  Rome. 

influence  of  philosophy,  the  mythology  of  the  Greeks,  as 
adopted  by  the  Romans,  retained  a  vital  hold  on  the 
popular  consciousness  as  late  as  the  third  century  A.  D. 
The  ancient  Greek  method  of  personifying  abstract  ideas, 
virtues,  and  moral  lessons  in  the  guise  of  bodily  forms 
continued  till  this  time.  An  entire  series  of  subjects  of 
legendary  art  was  employed  in  the  relief  decoration  of  the 
sarcophagi.  The  open-air  life  of  antiquity,  the  interest  in 
monumental  decoration,  and  the  public  attention  to  public 
art  made  much  patronage  for  the  ordinary  artisan  and 


102 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


promoted  the  education  of  other  and  superior  artists.  On 
the  whole,  in  insisting  on  the  value  of  Roman  statuary 
copies  for  a  study  of  the  earlier  Greeks,  we  must  not 

overlook  the  signifi- 
cance of  these  statuary 
works  for  the  empire 
itself. 

For  the  compre- 
hension of  all  art  be- 
fore the  invention  of 
printing  and  the  con- 
sequent  diffusion  of 
books  we  cannot  in- 
sist too  much  on  the 
point  that  books  and 
printing  have  taken 
the  place  which  art 
once  took.  It  was  not 
only  the  means  of 
monumental  record 
but  also  of  popular  in- 
struction and  of  popu- 
lar amusement.  We 
should  never  dream  of 
studying  the  daily  life 
of  the  nineteenth  "cen- 
tury through  its  paint- 
ing and  its  sculpture, 
but  this  is  our  main 
authority  and  our 
necessary  authority 
for  the  daily  life  of  antiquity.  The  greatest  importance 
consequently  attaches  to  the  minutest  and  apparently  most 


FIG.  65.- 


TITUS. 


Roman  Decorative  Art  and  Sculpture. 


103 


trivial  objects  of  Roman  art,  because  they  are  most  sig- 

nificant for   this  daily 

life  and    most  charac- 

teristic   for    the    taste 

of    every-day    people. 

It  is  from  this  point  of 

view  that  the  Roman 

engraved  gems  used  in 

the  signet  rings  are 

interesting.     A  wealth 

of  beauty  and  of  artis- 

tic adaptation  of  means 

to  ends  is  apparent  in 

these  little  objects 

(Fig.  67).     Here  again 

the  designs    represent 

Greek  subjects.      The 

illustration,  being  pho- 

tOgraphed    from    Casts, 

shows  the  raised  impression  made  by  an  intaglio,  i.  e.  ,  a 
gem  with  the  design  "cut  in"  (intaglio),  or  hollowed  out. 


FIG  ^.-Six**™  FAUN.    BRONZE  FROM 

HERCULANEUM.    Naples. 


FIG.  67.— CASTS  FROM  ROMAN  SIGNET  GEMS.     British  Museum. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ANCIENT    ROME    AS    SEEN    BY    MODERNS. 

IN  our  rapid  summary  connecting  some  of  the  surviving 
Roman  monuments  of  various  localities  with  the  essential 
facts  regarding  the  types  of  Roman  buildings  and  their 
system  of  construction  and  decoration,  we  have  done  scant 
justice  to  the  importance  and  local  interest  of  many  ruins 
in  the  city  of  Rome.  The  aim  of  the  present  chapter  will 
be  to  enumerate  such  important  remains  as  have  been 
omitted  from  previous  mention,  or  to  give  a  more  adequate 
notice  of  others  which  have  been  too  hastily  passed  over. 

We  shall  begin  this  account  with  an  illustration  of 
the  Appian  Way  (Fig.  68).  This  was  the  earliest  of 
the  famous  military  roads  of  Rome.  It  was  first  con-" 
structed  as  far  as  Capua  by  the  censor  Appius  Claudius  Cse- 
cus  in  312  B.  C,  and  was  subsequently  extended  to  Bene- 
ventum  and  Brundusium.  The  ancient  construction  of  the 
road  and  its  original  massive  paving-blocks  of  lava  have 
been  laid  bare  by  modern  excavations  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Rome  for  several  miles.  Remains  of  similar  roads  have 
been  found  in  many  territories  of  the  empire,  but  they  ap- 
pear most  wonderful,  or  most  suggestive  of  the  wonderful 
services  of  Rome  to  the  cause  of  civilization,  in  those 
countries  which  are  now  destitute  of  similar  facilities  for 
traffic  ;  for  instance,  in  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  many  parts 
of  North  Africa.  There  are  at  present  only  two  short 
carriage  roads  in  Syria  :  one  running  from  Beyrout  to 
Damascus,  the  other  running  from  Jaffa  to  Jerusalem, 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns. 


whereas  the  vestiges  of  the  Roman  roads  are  visible  in  all 
1  parts  of  that  country.  The  present  state  of  things  is  much 
the  same  in  Asia  Minor  and  in  North  Africa  (outside  of 
the  French  territory  of  Algiers).  Generally  speaking, 
there  was  down  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  no 


FIG.  68.— THE  APPIAN  WAY,  NEAR  ROME. 

such  perfection  of  roads  in  Europe  as  had  been  universal 
inside  the  Roman  frontiers,  as  early  as  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  era. 

These  wonderful  roads  were  connected  with  a  system  of 
no  less  wonderful  bridges,  which  rivaled  the  most  important 
engineering  feats  of  our  own  day  in  the  same  direction. 
In  the  neighborhood  of  Narni,  north  of  Rome,  may  still  be 
seen  one  ruined  arch  of  the  bridge  built  by  the  emperor 
Augustus  across  the>  river  Nera.  This  arch  has  a  height  of 
sixty  feet.  The  aqueduct  crossing  the  river  Garden 
near  Nimes  in  France  has  been  already  mentioned  and 
illustrated  (page  65,  Fig.  34).  This  aqueduct  has  also 


io6 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


'  >  connected  with  it  a  commodious  bridge,  which  is  still  in  use 

,  and  which  may  be  seen  in  the  illustration  above  the  first 

line  of  arches  and  beyond  the  buttresses  of  the  second  line 

of.  arches.     The  whole  height  of  this  construction  is  160 

,     feet  and  the  whole  length  is  over  880  feet.       The  bridge  at 

Rimini  on  the  Adriatic  shore  of   Italy,    which   was  built 

Jay  Augustus,  is  also  still  in  use.       Another  ancient  Roman 

bridge  in  modern  use   is  the  Fabrician  bridge,    crossing 

an  arm  of  the  Tiber  at  Rome,  which  was  built  in  62  B.  C. 

by  the  Roman  from  whom  it  is  named. 

The  ancient  pavement  of  a  Roman  street  may  be  seen  in 

P—^ -~     the    illustration     from 

Pompeii    (Fig.    59). 
Such   pavements    are 
not  uncommon  among 
the    ruined    cities    of 
Eastern    Syria,    where 
they  may  be  seen  with 
the  ruts  of  the  carriage 
wheels  remaining   in 
them,  as  is  also  the  case 
in  Pompeii.     There  is 
also  in  the  museum  at 
Pompeii  a  natural  cast 
in  volcanic  ashes  of  a 
cart  wheel  exactly  sim- 
ilar to  those  now  used  in  Italy.     A  road  roller  such  as  are 
now  used    in  leveling  and   crushing  down  layers  of  road 
metal  is  shown  by  a  stucco  relief  in  the  Baths  of  Stabiae  at 
Pompeii. 

The  Appian  Way  is  bordered  on  either  side  by  monu- 
mental tombs.  The  largest  of  these  tombs  is  the  circular 
one  seen  in  Fig.  69,  which  has  a  diameter  of  sixty-five 


FIG.  69.— TOMB  OF  CECILIA  METELLA  ON  THE 
APPIAN  WAY. 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns. 


107 


feet.     This   is  the   tomb   of  Csecilia   Metella,    wife  of   the 
younger  Crassus,    the  son   of  the  triumvir.      The  battle- 
ments above  belong  to  a  fortress  which  was  constructed  on 
the  summit  in  the  Middle  Ages.      The  tops  of  such  monu-  . 
ments  were  usually  covered  by  mounds  of  earth  on  which 


FIG.  70.— TOMB  OF  HADRIAN  AND  BRIDGE  OF  ST.  ANGELO.     Rome. 

trees  and  shrubs  were  made  to  grow.  Although  cemeteries 
in  the  modern  sense  were  by  no  means  unknown  to  the 
Romans,  it  was  also  habitual  to  line  the  main  roads  leading 
from  the  cities  with  tombs.  This  custom  also  appears 
in  the  Street  of  the  Tombs  at  Pompeii  which  issues 
from  the  Nola  Gate  (Fig.  59). 

The  largest  tomb  surviving  from  the  Roman  period 
ie  that  of  the  .emperor  Hadrian,  which  lies  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  modern  city  of  Rome  (Fig.  70).  Its  ruins 


io8 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


were  used  as  a  castle  by  the  medieval  popes,  and  a  covered 
passage  now  leads  from  it  to  the  papal  palace  of  the  Vati- 
can. The  present  circular  construction,  which  has  a  diame- 
ter of  324  feet,  was  formerly  topped  by  another  of  smaller 
size  which  supported  a  colossal  statue  of  the  emperor. 
Both  of  these  were  encrusted  with  marble  and  with 
columnar  decoration,  and  the  whole  rested  on  a  base 
342  feet  square.  Although  this  tomb  is  named  from 
Hadrian,  it  was  also  designed  by  him  for  his  successors 
and  these  were  also  buried  here  down  to  the  time  ol 
Caracalla  inclusive. 

Hadrian's  predecessor,  Trajan,  has  also  left  his  stamp  on 
the  modern  city  of  Rome.     Nearly  in  its  center  are  found 

the  remains  of  the 
Forum  which  he  added 
to  the  accommodations 
of  the  original  Roman 
Forum.  Nothing  is  left 
of  its  walls  and  porti- 
coes, of  its  temple,  or  of 
its  two  libraries.  We 
still  see  some  of  the  col- 
umns of  the  Business 
Exchange,  or  Basilica. 
Its  original  size  and 
general  arrangement 

FIG.  71.— COLUMN  OF  TRAJAN  AND  REMAINS     may   be   imagined    from 
OF  THE  ULPIAN  BASILICA.  .  . 

our  picture  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  of  St.  Paul  outside  the  walls  (Fig.  87).  For, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  the  plan  of  such  a  church  was  derived 
from  a  building  of  this  kind.  The  Column  of  Trajan  (Fig. 
7 1 )  was  the  tombstone  of  the  emperor  and  he  was  buried 
beneath  it.  His  statue,  which  once  stood  on  it,  has  dis- 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns.  109 


appeared  and  is  replaced  by  another  of  St.  Peter.  The 
height  of  the  column  (147  feet)  represents  the  height  of 
a  hill  which  was  dug  away  in  order  to  relieve  the  traffic 
of  the  Forum  proper,  to  make  an  easier  access  to  the 
northern  portion  of  the  city,  and  to  obtain  the  level 
space  needed  for  the  constructions  mentioned.  The  col- 
umn itself  is  decorated  by  a  continuous  spiral  relief  giving 
a  history  of  Trajan's  campaigns  in  Dacia  (part  of  modern 
Hungary),  which  he  added  to  the  territory  of  the  empire. 
This  is  the  most  important  relic  of  Roman  relief-sculpture 
in  existence,  but  the  reliefs  cannot  be  studied  at  present 
on  the  column,  which  was  once  surrounded  by  a  two- 
storied  gallery. 

Near  by  is  the  Roman  Forum  proper.  To  the  view 
of  this  Forum  given  on  page  20  we  now  add  another, 
looking  in  the  opposite  direction  (Fig.  72).  The  relation 
of  this  illustration  to  the  one  preceding  is  made  clear 
by  comparing  the  columns  of  the  Temple  of  Saturn  which 
are  seen  in  the  foreground  on  page  20  with  the  same 
columns  as  seen  in  the  distance  in  Fig.  72. 

The  excavation  of  the  Roman  Forum  as  here  illustrated 
has  been  accomplished  since  1871.  Down  to  the  eighth 
century  of  our  era  the  old  level  of  the  Forum  had  been 
preserved,  but  after  that  date  the  site  was  covered  by 
medieval  towers  and  castles,  which  were  constructed  from 
the  surrounding  ancient  buildings.  These  feudal  construc- 
tions were  demolished  in  the  thirteenth  century,  after 
which  the  site  became  a  dumping  ground  and  rubbish 
heap.  The  buildings  themselves,  both  ancient  and  medie- 
val, as  they  were  dismantled  and  pulled  down  for  the  sake 
of  their  building  material,  served  by  their  downfall  to 
raise  still  further  the  level  of  the  debris  by  which  they  were 
surrounded.  In  some  places,  at  the  time  of  recent  excava- 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns.  1 1 1 


tions,  the  soil  had  risen  forty  feet  above  the  ancient  level. 
The  use  of  the  ruins  as  quarries  continued  here,  and  else- 
where in  Rome,  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

We  see  on  the  left  of  the  general  view  of  the  Forum 
some  remains  of  the  dwellings  of  the  vestal  virgins,  one  of 
whose  duties  it  was  to  tend  the  sacred  fire  which  was  kept 
burning  in  the  Temple  of  Vesta.  The  round  foundations 
of  this  temple  are  visible  in  the  illustration. 

Beyond  this  foundation  we  see  on  the  left  three  columns 
of  the  Temple  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  which  date  from  a  re- 
construction of  this  temple  by  Tiberius.  The  original 
temple  commemorated  the  victory  of  the  Romans  over  the 
Latins  at  Lake  Regillus,  in  B.  C.  496,  and  was  dedicated  to 
the  twin  gods  whose  aid  was  thought  to  have  turned  the 
tide  of  bkttle. 

Next  come  the  foundations  of  a  basilica  which  was 
erected  by  Julius  Caesar. 

The  Temple  of  Saturn,  whose  columns  appear  in  the 
foreground  on  page  20,  was  the  seat  of  the  earliest  public 
treasury.  The  present  remains  belong  to  a  restoration 
of  the  Roman  decadence. 

Just  to  the  right  of  this  was  the  Temple  of  Concord, 
of  which  only  a  portion  of  the  platform  is  in  position. 
Then  come  the  three  remaining  columns  of  a  temple  built 
by  Domitian. 

Next  to  these  we  see  the  Arch  of  Septimius  Severus, 
which  commemorated  his  victories  in  the  Tigris- Euphrates 
Valley  (Fig.  52),  and  on  the  right  in  the  foreground  is  the 
Temple  of  Antoninus  and  Faustina  (see  also  Fig.  47). 

The  Basilica  of  Constantine  (Fig.  51)  is  directly  ad- 
jacent to  this  last-named  ruin.  This  building  was  erected 
by  Maxentius  and  dedicated  under  Constantine.  What  is 
seen  of  the  Basilica  of  Constantine  in  the  illustration  is  the 


ii2  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

ruin  of  one  of  its  side  aisles,  whose  arches  have  a  height  of 
sixty-eight  feet.  The  span  of  the  central  nave  was  eighty 
feet  and  its  height  112  feet.  The  ground  plan  was  about 
300  feet  by  264  feet. 

This  ruin  is  the  finest  surviving  example  of  the  Roman 
system  of  vaulting  and  served  as  a  model  for  the  modern 
Church  of  St.  Peter,  whose  nave  has  a  corresponding 
width.  It  also  illustrates  the  important  part  which  was 
played  in  Roman  building  by  the  use  of  concrete.  This 
concrete  was  poured  in  a  fluid  state  into  timber  casings,  in 
which  it  set  and  hardened.  The  size  of  these  casings  was 
regulated  by  the  convenience  of  construction  and  would 
have  corresponded  in  the  lower  part  of  this  building  to  the 
thickness  of  the  piers,  but  not  to  their  height.  The  piers 
were  built  in  a  series  of  sections  and  the  casing  was  raised 
or  reconstructed  as  the  work  went  on.  Only  the  facings 
of  the  piers  and  arches  were  of  brick. 

This  method  of  building  avoided  the  ' '  thrust ' '  which  is 
exercised  by  an  arch  or  vaulting  wholly  composed  of  brick 
or  -stone  ;  for  the  arch  was,  so  to  speak,  cast  solid  as 
regards  most  of  the  material  used  in  its  construction.  The 
exterior  brick  facings  were  in  their  turn  covered  by  a 
casing  of  precious  marbles  and  by  decorations  of  Greek 
columns,  entablatures,  and  pediments,  in  the  style 
described  in  a  previous  chapter.  A  large  Corinthian 
column  which  once  faced  one  of  the  piers  of  the  Basilica 
of  Constantine  now  stands  in  front  of  the  Church  of  Santa 
Maria  Maggiore. 

The  general  disappearance  of  the  marble  decorations 
of  such  buildings  is  due  partly  to  the  use  of  the  columns  in 
later  constructions,  and  partly  to  the  medieval  habit  of 
burning  the  marbles  for  the  manufacture  of  lime  and 
mortar.  In  the  recent  excavations  of  the  Forum  remains 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns. 


of  three  lime-kilns  were  found  on  the  platform  of  the 
basilica  built  by  Julius  Caesar.  The  above  remarks  as  to 
the  use  of  concrete,  of  brick  facings,  and  of  the  marble 
facing  which  covered  the  brick  walls  will  also  apply  to  the 
Baths  of  Caracalla  (Fig.  50). 

North  of  the  Roman  Forum  and  in  its  immediate  neigh- 
borhood are  the  three  columns  of  a  Temple  of  Mars  Ultor, 
built  by  Augustus,  and 
famous  for  their  beautiful 
Corinthian  capitals. 

In  this  neighborhood 
are  also  two  columns  and 
a  portion  of  the  wall  of 
the  Forum  built  by  the 
emperor  Nerva( Fig.  73). 
The  projecting  entabla- 
tures resting  on  these  col- 
umns are  an  exaggeration 
of  the  ordinary  Roman 
breaks  in  the  line  of  the 
entablature.  These  breaks 
are  due  to  the  use  of  the  Greek  column  as  a  wall  deco- 
ration. In  this  instance,  although  the  columns  stand  free 
from  the  wall  they  are  still  purely  ornamental  and  the  jut- 
ting entablature  is  a  result. 

South  of  the  Roman  Forum  lies  the  Capitoline  Hill, 
which  is  now  covered  by  a  confused  mass  of  ruins  belong- 
ing to  the  palaces  of  the  Caesars.  Among  them  was  a 
palace  seven  stories  high  built  by  Septimius  Severus. 
Remains  of  this  building  were  standing  as  late  as  the 
sixteenth  century.  East  of  the  Roman  Forum  lies  the 
Arch  of  Titus  and  next  comes  the  Colosseum. 

The  Arch  of   Titus   commemorates  the  destruction   of 


FIG.  73. — THE  FORUM  OF  NERVA. 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns. 


Jerusalem  by  this  emperor,  70  A.  D.  On  the  inner  walls 
of  the  arch  are  reliefs  showing  portions  of  the  triumphal 
procession  which  celebrated  this  conquest  of  the  Jews. 
On  one  side  is  seen  the  emperor  in  his  chariot ;  on  the 
other,  Roman  soldiers  bearing  the  seven-branched  candle- 
stick of  gold  and  other  spoils  of  the  Jewish  temple.  These 
reliefs  are  significant, 
like  those  of  the  Column 
of  Trajan,  for  an  impor- 
tant distinction  between 
Greek  and  Roman 
sculpture.  Matter-of- 
fact  history  was  not 
treated  by  Greek  relief- 
sculpture,  whose  sub- 
jects were  wholly  relig- 
ious and  mythological. 
The  same  practical  and 
utilitarian  point  of  view 
which  we  find  in  the 
Roman  preference  for 
portrait-  sculpture  as  FlG"  75-THE  ARCH  OF  TlTUS' 

contrasted  with  the  Greek  indifference  to  portrait  art  is 
illustrated  here.  (For  a  typical  Greek  relief  see  page  73.) 
It  must  be  remembered  that  these  Greek  reliefs  were  con- 
stantly copied  by  Roman  art ;  but  similar  ones  from  the 
field  of  Roman  mythology  were  not  originated. 

Our  picture  of  the  Arch  of  Titus  (Fig.  75)  shows  the 
Colosseum  in  the  distance  and  explains  its  location  as 
related  to  the  Roman  Forum.  This  largest  of  the  Roman 
amphitheaters  is  a  fine  instance  of  the  imposing  effects 
which  may  be  achieved  by  plain  masonry  construction,  as 
well  as  of  the  massive  character  and  monumental  propor- 


n6 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


tions  of  the  Roman  buildings.  This  amphitheater  was 
founded  by  Vespasian  and  completed  by  Titus  (80  A.  D.), 
but  it  appears  probable  that  the  upper  stories  were  origi- 
nally of  timber  and  that  the  reconstruction  of  these  in 
masonry  was  achieved  at  a  later  date.  The  exterior 
circumference,  which  has  an  elliptical  plan,  is  nearly  one 
third  of  a  mile.  The  exterior  long  diameter  is  615  feet, 
and  the  corresponding  shorter  diameter  is  510  feet  The 


FIG.  76.— RELIEF  FROM  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS. 

seating   capacity   was    87,000.     The   seats,    but   not    the 
arena,  were  protected  by  an  awning. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  further 
destruction  of  the  Colosseum,  for  the  sake  of  its  building 
material,  was  stopped  by  Pope  Benedict  XIV.,  who  con- 
secrated the  interior  by  the  erection  of  a  number  of  small 
chapels  in  memory  of  the  Christian  martyrs  whose 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns. 


117 


blood  was  shed  here.  Fig.  53  shows  the  arena  with  these 
small  shrines,  as  it  appeared  before  the  excavations  of 
1874.  The  purpose  of  these  was  to  lay  bare  the  subter- 
ranean dens,  and  arrange- 
ments for  raising  the  scen- 
ery and  cages  of  wild 
beasts  through  the  trap 
doors  in  the  wooden  floor- 
ing of  the  arena.  The 
result  of  these  excavations 
has  been  to  destroy  much 
of  the  picturesque  beauty 
of  the  ruin  and  they  have 
not  added  any  important 
knowledge  to  the  archaeol- 
ogy of  the  special  subject. 
The  games  of  the  gladia- 
tors were  given  up  at  the 
opening  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, during  the  reign  of 
the  emperor  Honorius. 


FIG.  77. — THE  COLOSSEUM. 

The  name  of  Colosseum  is 
thought  to  have  been  derived  from  a  colossal  bronze  statue 
of  Nero  which  long  stood  near  it. 

Close  to  the  Colosseum  stands  the  Triumphal  Arch  of 
Constantine.  It  commemorates  his  victory  over  his  rival 
Maxentius  in  311  A.  D. ,  from  which  is  dated  the  triumph 
of  Christianity  in  the  Roman  state.  Most  of  the  relief 
decorations  of  this  arch  were  taken  from  the  Arch  of 
Trajan,  which  was  destroyed  for  this  purpose.  Some 
smaller  reliefs  dating  from  the  time  of  Constantine  are  of 
marked  inferiority  to  the  others  and  the  decadence  of  the 
late  Roman  sculpture  is  well  illustrated  by  this  re-use  of 
the  decorations  of  an  earlier  monument. 


n8 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


FIG.  78.— THE  TEMPLE  OF  VESTA  (SO-CALLED). 


The  imposing  re- 
mains of  the  Baths 
of  Caracalla  (Fig. 
50)  are  about  half  a 
mile  (in  a  straight 
line)  south  of  the 
Colosseum.  In 
their  present  con- 
dition they  are  a 
magnificent  illus- 
tration of  the  work 
done  by  the  Ro- 
mans in  brick  and 
concrete,  and  of  their  arches  and  vaultings,  .but  there  is 
nothing  left  of  the  architectural  decorations,  marble  casings, 
mosaics,  etc.  The  total  area  occupied  by  the  grounds 
and  buildings  was  nearly  1,100  feet  square.  The  main 
building  was  720x372  feet.  Only  the  general  dimensions 
and  main  constructive 
features  of  the  larger 
apartments  can  be 
gathered  from  a  su- 
perficial study  of  the 
existing  remains. 

There  are  several 
ancient  monuments 
in  that  quarter  of 
modern  Rome  which 
is  bordered  by  the 
Forum,  the  Tiber, 
and  the  Palatine  and 
Capitoline  Hills.  Be- 
sides the  SO-called  FIG.  79.— GATEWAY  OF  THE  MONEY-CHANGERS. 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns. 


1*9 


Temples  of  Vesta  (Fig.  78)  and  of  Fortuna  Virilis  (Fig. 
46),  already  mentioned,  we  find  in  this  quarter  the  so- 
called  Arch  of  Janus,  probably  dating  from  the  time  of 
Constantine,  and  the  small  Arch  of  the  Money-changers, 
who  erected  it  in  honor  of  Septimius  Severus  (Fig.  79). 
This  is,  properly  speaking,  a  gateway  and  not  an  arch. 
A  more  important  ruin  in  the  same  quarter  of  the  city  is 


FIG.  80.— THE  THEATER  OF  MARCELLUS. 

that  of  the  Theater  of  Marcellus  (Fig.  80),  built  by  Julius 
Caesar,  but  dedicated  by  Augustus  and  named  after  his 
nephew  Marcellus.  Tt  is  said  to  have  seated  20,000  spec- 
tators. 

The  one  ancient  building  of  the  whole  Roman  world, 
now  in  fair  preservation  both  inside  and  out,  is  the  great 
dome  structure  known  as  the  Pantheon  (Fig.  81).  This 


120 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


lies  about  midway  between  the  Theater  of  Marcellus 
and  the  Tomb  of  Hadrian.  Although  this  building  was 
dedicated,  after  construction,  to  the  gods  of  the  con- 
quered nations,  it  is  thought  to  have  been  connected  with 
the  Baths  of  Agrippa,  which  stood  directly  beside  it. 
That  the  original  destination  of  the  Pantheon  was  that 
of  a  swimming  bath  has  been  contested,  but  not  dis- 
proven,  and  very  recent  publications  support  this  view 
with  strong  arguments.  The  building  is,  at  all  events,  the 
best  surviving  illustration  of  the  great  domes  which  were 
usually  constructed  in  the  Roman  baths.  'Nie  interior 

diameter  of  the  dome 
is  140  feet  and  the 
height  about  the  same. 
It  is  very  effectively 
lighted  by_  an  orifice 
at  the  center  of  the 
dome.  The  exterior 
portico  is  of  very  im- 
posing dimensions  and 
the  most  famous  ex- 
tant example  of  the 
Roman  imitations  of  a 
Greek  temple  front.  The  form  of  a  Greek  temple  portico 
is  not,  however,  a  logical  development  from  the  plan  of  a . 
dome  building,  and  we  have  here  another  instance  of  Ro- 
man imitative  methods  based  on  Greek  art  and  applied  to 
constructive  forms  which  are  not  found  in  Greek  architec- 
ture. The  pitch  of  the  pediment  is  more  acute  than  that; 
found  in  the  original  Greek  temples,  where  the  angle  is 
low  and  obtuse.  (Compare  the  view  of  the  Greek  temple 
at  Egesta,  Fig.  22).  The  ancient  bronze  doors  of  the 
Pantheon  are  still  in  position.  Since  the  seventh  century 


FIG.  81.— THE  PANTHEON.    Rome. 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns. 


121 


it  has  been  used  as  a  Christian  church  (Santa  Maria  Ro- 
tonda).  This  building  may  be  regarded  as  the  parent- of 
the  dome  ofvSt.  Peter's,,  whose  construction  was  undoubt- 
edly suggested  by  it. 

Near  the  Pantheon  stands  the  Column  of  Marcus  Aure- 
lius,  which  is  similar  to  that  of  Trajan  and  of  equal  height, 
but  not  as  interesting  in^  its  details  nor  as  beautiful  in 


FIG.  82.— THE  PYRAMID  OF  CAIUS  CESTIUS  AND  PORTA  PAOLA. 

its  proportions.  In  the  same  neighborhood  there  are 
eleven  Corinthian  columns  of  a  temple  of  Neptune,  built 
by  Hadrian,  which  have  been  built  into  a  modern  con- 
struction. 

The  so-called  Temple  of  Minerva  Medica,  which  is  situ- 
ated near  the  walls  of  the  city  on  its  eastern  side,  is  the 
ruin  ,of  a  bath  of  which  there  are  no  literary  records.  In 


122 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


general  appearance  and  character  of  preservation  it  much 
resembles  the  ruins  of  the  Baths  of  Caracalla. 

At  three  of  the  gates  of  the  modern  city  we  find  relics  of 
antiquity.  The  Pyramid  of  Caius  Cestius,  just  outside  the 
Porta  San  Paolo,  is  a  tomb  which  illustrates  the  influence 
of  Egyptian  art  on  the  taste  of  the  empire  (Fig.  82).  It 
dates  a  few  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era. 


FIG.  83.— THE  PORTA  MAGGIORE  AND  TOMB  OF  EURYSACES. 

In  the  Porta  Maggiore  (east  side  of  the  city)  we  have  the 
arches  of  a  Roman  city -gate  which  supported  the  conduits 
of  two  aqueducts  built  by  the  emperor  Claudius  (Fig.  83). 
The  gable-shaped  pediments  above  the  niches  (originally 
designed  for  statues)  are  a  reminder  of  the  Roman  origin 


Ancient  Rome  as  Seen  by  Moderns. 


123 


of  a  very  familiar  furniture  and  architectural  decoration  of 
our  own  day.  This  feature  of  the  Renaissance  style  has 
already  been  mentioned  (page  89). 

The  monument  beside  this  gate  is  that  of  a  baker  and 
grain  purveyor  of  the  late  republic  named  Eurysaces.  It 
is  composed  of  stone 
imitations  of  measures 
for  grain,  some  of 
which  are  placed  erect 
while  others  are  laid 
on  the  side. 

Our  list  of  ruins  in 
the  city  of  Rome 
closes  with  the  Arch 
of  Drusus,  father  of 
the  emperor  Claudius, 
dating  8  B.  C.  The. 
road  which  passes 
through  this  arch  fol- 
lows the  line  of  .the 
Appian  Way.  The 
aqueduct  leading  t  o 
the  Baths  of  Caracalla  was  subsequently  carried  above 
this  arch,  thus  destroying  the  pediment  by  which  it  was 
crowned  (Fig.  84). 

Outside  the  walls  of  the  city,  aside  from  the  tombs  of 
the  Appian  Way,  the  most  interesting  ruins  are  those  of 
the  aqueducts  already  mentioned.  These  cover  the  Cam- 
pagna  in  all  directions.  Measured  by  the  length  of  the 
aqueduct  itself,  which  sometimes  follows  a  winding  course, 
the  longest  was  fifty-nine  miles,  and  the  shortest  eleven 
miles  in  length.  These  constructions  were  not  confined  to 
the  use  of  conduits  raised  on  arches,  as  would  appear  from 


FIG.  84.— THE  ARCH  OF  DRUSUS. 


124  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

the  visible  ruins,  but  the  water  was  frequently  carried 
underground  as  well  as  on  the  level.  As  the  Romans 
were  not  acquainted  with  the  use  of  cast-iron  pipes  they 
were  obliged  to  maintain  a  very  gentle  descent  in  the 
general  course  of  the  aqueduct  to  prevent  the  bursting  of 
the  conduits  by  pressure. — hence  the  use  of  the  conduit 
raised  on  arches,  when  carried  over  a  plain,  which  appears 
so  largely  on  the  Campagna. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    ROMAN    DECADENCE. 

THE  great  service  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  the  nations 
of  Western  Europe  ultimately  caused  its  own  great 
weakness.  It  had  brought  the  Gauls,  the  British,  the 
Spaniards,  and  the  west  and  south  Germans  within  the 
pale  of  civilization,  but  it  could  not  leaven  so  large  a 
mass  of  population  with  its  own  culture  without  suffer- 
ing a  corresponding  loss  of  vitality  and  without  sacri- 
ficing the  standards  of  perfection  in  literature,  in  art, 
and  in  public  taste  which  it  had  either  inherited  or  trans- 
ferred from  the  older  Greek  culture  of  the  eastern  Medi- 
terranean, 

The  history  of  the  beginnings  of  the  empire  and  its  art  is 
not  a  history  of  evolution  or  development  (outside  of 
politics)  so  much  as  it  is  a  history  of  diffusion  and  of 
transfer.  The  arch  with  its  borrowed  Greek  decorative 
adjuncts  spread  from  Italy  all  over  Western  Europe  (Fig. 
36).  The  style  of  Roman-Greek  sculpture  was  found 
in  Hungary  and  in  Britain  (Figs.  33,  35),  but  there  was  a 
certain  loss  of  quality  involved  in  these  transfers.  The 
Roman  Italian  himself  was  a  borrower,  as  we  have  seen, 
therefore  he  could  not  lend  too  lavishly  to  others  without 
encroaching  on  his  own  resources.  In  the  very  beginnings 
of  the  empire  the  party  of  reaction  against  the  policy 
of  favoring  the  provincials  had  instinctively  foreseen  these 
results.  Caesar  was  assassinated  because  he  had  admitted 
Gauls  and  Spaniards  to  the  Roman  Senate.  In  this  policy 

125 


126 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


he  represented  the  march  of  events,  but  this  march  of 
events  led  to  the  decline  and  downfall  of  ancient  civilization 
in  one  sense,  though  not  in  all. 

In  the  first  century  of  the  empire  we  naturally  dis- 
tinguish excellencies  in  the  art  of  the  capital  city  and  of 
Italy  which  do  not  hold  of  the  Roman  art  of  Gaul  or 
of  Africa.  As  the  provinces  became  more  thoroughly  Ro- 
manized, their  still  inferior  art  and  culture  reacted  on 

the  capital  city  and  on 
Italy  at  large.  In  the 
second  century  A.  D. 
we  thus  distinguish  a 
certain  decline,  for  in- 
stance, in  the  general 
quality  of  the  sculpture 
done  at  Rome  ^s  com- 
pared with  that  of  the 
first  century  A.  D.  In 
the  third  century  of.  the 
Christian  era  the  de- 
cline was  so  rapid  in  the 
art  of  ancient  sculpture 
that  the  close  of  the 
century  had  almost  wit- 
nessed the  downfall  of 
this  art,  as  regards  the 
production  of  any  repre- 
sentative  examples 
which  could  be  quoted 
beside  the  masterpieces 
of  antiquity.  In  architecture  the  same  change  was  going 
on  as  regards  the  purity  of  classic  Greek  details  and  the 
refinements  of  masonry  construction.  The  monuments 


•^IG.  85.—  WALL  PAINTING. 
THE  WOMAN  OF  SAMARIA.    Catacomb 


of  St.  Calixtus. 


CHRIST  AND 
Cataco 
Fourth  Century. 


The  Roman  Decadence.  I  27 

which  would  illustrate  this  decline  in  classic  buildings  are 
mainly  lacking  in  Italy,  but  the  fragments  which  exist  are 
sufficient  testimony.  We  might  specify,  for  instance,  the 
base  Ionic  capitals  and  the  unfluted  columns  (also  lacking 
the  entasis)  of  the  Temple  of  Saturn  in  the  Roman  Forum 
(page  20).  In  the  buildings  of  the  east  Jordan  territory, 
which  belong  mainly  to  this  time,  there  are  numerous 
instances  of  the  corruption  and  disintegration  of  classic 
architecture. 

Throughout  the  first  three  centuries  of  the  Christian  era 
there  was  another  element  of  disintegration  of  classic 
art  involved  in  the  rise  and  rapid  spread  of  the  Christian 
religion.  The  bitter  persecutions  of  the  second  and  third 
century  are  only  a  witness  to  the  large  number  of  converts 
then  existing,  and  the  action  taken  by  the  emperor  Con- 
stantine  at  the  opening  of  the  fourth  century  definitely 
announced  that  the  Christians  formed  the  majority  of 
his  subjects.  Although  the  emperor  was  himself  baptized 
on  his  death-bed,  it  is  clear  that  his  earlier  action  in 
placing  Christianity  under  state  protection  and  giving  it 
a  state  recognition  was  based  on  political  motives,  and  that 
it  was  intended  to  secure,  as  it  did  secure  him,  the  political 
support  of  the  majority  of  his  subjects  in  his  own  struggle 
for  power  against  his  rival,  Licinius. 

In  contrasting  this  political  recognition  of  the  Christian 
faith  in  the  fourth  century  with  the  bitter  persecutions 
which  preceded,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  Roman  policy 
was  in  general  one  of  toleration  to  all  religions,  but  that  it 
only  recognized  those  of  national  character.  Sects  and 
schisms  within  the  national  limit  could  not  be  tolerated 
without  sacrificing  the  national  good-will  to  Rome  which 
the  policy  of  toleration  was  intended  to  secure.  Christian- 
ity was  at  first  considered  a  sect  or  schism  of  the  Jews, 


128 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


whose  own  faith  was  tolerated.  The  refusal  of  the  Chris- 
tians to  do  divine  honors  to  the  emperor,  which  to 
them  was  contrary  to  conscience,  was  also  supposed  by 
the  pagans  to  be  an  indication  of  disloyalty  to  the  state. 
The  general  tolerance  practiced  by  the  Romans  is  in- 
dicated by  the  dedication  of  the  Pantheon  to  the  gods 
of  the  conquered  nations  (page  120). 

These  explanations  may  serve  to  show  that  there  was  no 
real   break   with    Roman    political    traditions    involved   in 


FIG.  86. — BASILICA  CHURCH  OF  THE  MANGER.     Bethlehem. 
Fourth  Century. 

the  triumph  of  Christianity,  and  that  this  triumph  was 
a  logical  continuation  of  the  idea  which  the  Romans 
had  represented  in  ancient  politics.  They  had  repre- 
sented the  ideal  of  the  political  brotherhood  of  man,  and 
the  spiritual  brotherhood  announced  by  Christianity  was  a 


The  Roman  Decadence.  129 

logical  result.  The  Romans  had  broken  down  the  preju- 
dices of  national  antagonism  and  had  united  all  the  nations 
of  the  civilized  world,  as  then  existing,  under  one  govern- 
ment. The  downfall  of  national  religions  in  favor  of  a  uni- 
versal religion  was  a  counterpart  of  this  movement. 

But  the  decadence  and  absolute  downfall  of  ancient 
art  were  an  inevitable  consequence  of  the  triumph  of 
Christianity.  Ancient  temple  architecture  was  pagan ; 
ancient  sculpture  was  pagan  and  ancient  painting  was 
pagan.  The  destruction  of  the  idols  and  the  temples  was 
the  first  duty  and  the  first  act  of  the  successful  Christians. 
That  the  Greek  statues  had  been  personifications  of  noble 
and  beautiful  ideas  was  not  so  clear  to  the  early  Christians 
as  it  is  to  us.  With  them  the  imputation  of  idolatry 
involved  the  wholesale  condemnation  of  the  art. 

There  was  involved  here  a  double  cause  of  art  decay. 
First  and  foremost  the  art  of  sculpture  was  abandoned  in 
so  far  as  its  subjects  had  been  mythical  or  religious,  that  is 
to  say  pagan.  Now,  aside  from  Roman  portraits  almost 
the  entire  ancient  art  was  ostensibly  mythical  in  subject. 
The  cessation  of  patronage  involved  the  downfall  of  the 
art.  There  was  furthermore  the  antagonism  of  the  Chris- 
tian ideal  of  those  days  to  the  ancient  ideal  of  beauty  and 
physical  well-being  as  expressed  in  sculpture.  The  mission 
of  the  Christian  was  to  exalt  the  things  of  the  spirit  above 
the  things  of  the  body  —  poverty,  humility,  long-suffering, 
and  the  mortification  of  human  desires  were  the  virtues 
which  he  exalted.  There  was,  moreover,  a  natural  bond  of 
connection  between  the  deterioration  of  Roman  art  (in- 
volved in  its  widespread  diffusion  among  the  provincials) 
and  the  triumph  of  the  Christians.  For  in  this  triumph 
was  involved  a  revolution  in  the  social  order  and  in  the 
standing  of  the  classes  of  society.  The  Christian  faith 


130  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

found  its  first  converts  among  the  poor  and  lowly.  It 
spread  most  rapidly  among  the  lower  orders  of  society. 
Their  triumph  was  the  defeat  of  the  aristocracies  of  wealth 
and  blood  which  did  not  ally  themselves  with  the  new 
movement.  For  it  was  with  the  philosophers,  with  the 
learned,  and  with  the  well-born,  that  paganism  especially 
found  its  strongest  supporters  and  advocates.  The  de- 
terioration of  taste  and  refinement,  which  has  been  ex- 
plained as  a  natural  result  of  the  diffusion  of  Roman 
culture  over  Western  Europe,  was  allied  with  the  social 
revolution  which  the  triumph  of  the  Christians  carried 
with  it. 

But  there  is  still  something  to  be  said  as  to  the  deca- 
dence of  antique  Roman  art,  which  regards  the  introduc- 
tion of  foreign  barbaric  elements  within  the  limits  of  its 
civilization.  In  the  later  days  of  the  empire  (third  century 
B.  C.)  its  borders  may  be  roughly  described,  outside 
of  Britain,  as  the  Rhine,  Danube,  Black  Sea,  Caucasus, 
and  the  Syrian,  Arabian,  and  African  Deserts.  On  one  of 
its  frontier  lines  especially,  that  of  the  Rhine  and  Danube, 
there  had  long  been  going  on  a  Romanizing  process 
beyond  the  frontier  among  the  German  and  Gothic  tribes. 
These  were  semi-barbarians,  of  great  vigor  and  valor, 
addicted  to  warfare  and  renowned  for  military  prowess.  It 
was  among  these  tribes  that  the  Roman  legions  of  these 
frontiers  were  very  largely  recruited,  the  interior  popula- 
tions of  the  empire  having  by  long  peace  grown  unaccus- 
tomed to  war.  A  final  element  of  deterioration  was 
therefore  the  employment  and  settlement  within  the  em- 
pire of  enormous  masses  of  barbarian  troops,  and  ultimately 
not  only  the  legions  themselves  were  thus  recruited,  but 
certain  tribes  were  enrolled  in  mass  under  the  Roman 
standards  and  subsequently  settled  on  Roman  territory. 


j 


The  Roman  Decadence. 


The  tribes  so  enrolled  were  partly  Romanized  and  were 
Christian  converts. 

It  was  at   the   close   of   the   fifth    century   after   Christ 
that  all  these  various  elements  of   disintegration  showed 


FIG.  87. — BASILICA  OF  ST.  PAUL.     Rome.    Rebuilt  1828. 
Old  Church,  Fourth  Century. 

their  results  in  what  historians  call  ' '  the  downfall  of  the 
Roman  Empire  of  the  West." 

The  Roman   Christian  Art. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  reason  why  the  Christian 
pictures  of  the  catacombs  and  the  sculptured  Christian  sar- 
cophagi, which  are  our  main  relics  of  early  Christian  art, 
should  not  be  formally  included  with  the  Roman  art  of  the 
ancient  Roman  Empire.  They  belong  to  it  in  time  and  in 
civilization.  They  reflected  and  shared  and  partly  caused 
Jts  decadence  and  they  assist  us,  when  so  placed  and 


132  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

studied,  to  comprehend  the  continuity  of  history  as  existing 
between  the  late  Roman  Empire  and  the  early  Middle  Age. 
An  entire  century  elapsed  after  the  recognition  of  Chris- 
tianity by  Constantine  before  the  establishment  of  the  first 
Germanic  state  in  Western  Europe,  with  which  the  history 
of  the  Middle  Ages  should  properly  begin.*  From  the 


FIG.  88.— EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SARCOPHAGUS  RELIEF.    THE 
RESURRECTION  OF  LAZARUS.     Ravenna. 

opening  of  the  fourth  century  onward,  there  were  Christian 
churches  and  there  was  Christian  art  in  all  the  territories  of 
the  empire — in  Britain,  France,  Spain,  Italy,  North  Africa, 
Egypt,  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  the  Danube  countries,  Macedo- 
nia, and  Greece. 

The  oldest  standing  Christian  church  is  the  Church  of 
the  Manger  at  Bethlehem,  built  in  the  early  fourth  century 

*  The  State  of  tne  West  Goths  ;  at  first  confined  to  Northeast  Spain. 


The  Roman  Decadence.  133 

and  traditionally  reputed  to  stand  on  the  site  of  Christ's 
nativity.*  This  is  the  only  positively  dated  standing 
basilica  of  the  fourth  century  A.  D.  There  are  some  ruins 
in  North  Africa  of  older  churches,  but  in  general  the  perse- 
cutions made  constructions  definitely  assigned  to  worship 
impossible,  and  these  persecutions  were  not  forbidden 
till  the  opening  of  the  fourth  century. 

A  small  circular  church  of  the  fourth  century,  still  stand- 
ing at  Rome,  is  that  of  St.  Costanza,  the  daughter  of  Con- 
stantine  the  Great,  and  was  built  as  her  mortuary  chapel. 
The  most  famous  churches  of  this  time  were  the  Roman 
church  basilicas  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  P.aul,  each  reputed  to 
be  on  the  site  of  the  martyrdom  of  its  saint.  The  St. 
Peter's  basilica  was  torn  down  in  the  sixteenth  century 
to  make  way  for  the -new  church  then  built.  The  St. 
Paul's  basilica  was  mainly  destroyed  by  fire  in  our  own 
century  (1828),  and  has  been  since  rebuilt,  but  one 
portion  is  ancient.  In  general,  we  are  dependent  on 
churches  of  the  sixth,  seventh,  or  eighth  centuries  for  our 
knowledge  of  the  earlier  ones,  but  these  are  also  few  in 
number.  We  should  not  the  less  insist  on  the  fact  that 
both  the  western  and  eastern  portions  of  the  Roman 
Empire  were  full  of  Christian  churches  after  the  opening 
of  the  fourth  century  A.  D. 

The  most  interesting  remains  of  earlier  Christian  art 
are  the  paintings  of  the  catacombs.  These  were  under- 
ground cemeteries  to  which  the  early  Christians  resorted 
for  refuge  in  times  of  persecution.  Small  chapels  for 


*  The  three  centuries  which  elapsed  between  the  time  when  the  first  gospels 
were  written  and  the  period  of  Constantine  were  times  favorable  to  the  growth  of 
hastily  accepted  and  unauthorized  traditions  as  to  the  actual  localities  of  the 
events  described  by  them.  The  record  of  tradition  in  itself  is,  however,  often 
as  valid  and  authentic  as  that  of  writing.  There  is  as  little  reason  /9r  hastily 
doubting  as  there  is  for  hastily  accepting  these  traditions.  Probabilities,  facts, 
and  records  have  to  be  considered  for  each  special  case,  and  the  tradition  itself  is 
always  a  noteworthy  and  interesting  thing  even  when  proven  erroneous. 


134  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

prayer  and  worship  were  occasionally  associated  with  the 
burial  places  of  eminent  martyrs  or  saints  and  are  the 
points  at  which  these  decorative  paintings  are  found.  The 
earliest  known  are  probably  of  the  second  century  A.  D. , 
and  they  continue  through  the  eighth  century.  The  style 


FIG.  89.— EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SARCOPHAGUS  RELIEF.     CHRIST  AND 
FOUR  APOSTLES.      Ravenna. 

of  these  pictures  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  contemporary 
pagan  art.  The  subjects  of  some  of  them  are  adaptations 
of  pagan  myths  to  a  Christian  use.  In  one  of  them  Christ 
appears  as  Orpheus. 

The  catacomb  pictures  (paintings  on  the  plastered  walls) 
are  small,  but  bright  and  happy  in  color  and  combined 
with  pattern  ornaments  of  classic  style.*  The  remains, 
however,  are  scanty  and  the  number  known  is  not  large. 
The  treatment  of  the  subjects,  the  "Last  Supper,"  the 
"Woman  at  the  Well,"  etc.,  has  an  imposing  simplicity 
and  earnestness.  The  technical  execution  and  perfection 
of  these  works  vary  with  the  period  and,  strangely  enough, 
we  have  here  the  spectacle  of  a  newborn  art  as  to  subject 

*  It  is  quite  difficult  to  realize  from  photographs  the  true  appearance  of  these 
frescoes.    See  Fig.  85. 


The  Roman  Decadence. 


135 


which  declines  in  quality  of  style  as  time  goes  on.  The 
third  century  art  of  the  catacombs  is  inferior  to  that  of  the 
second  century.  This  is  one  curious  illustration  of  the 
general  deterioration  in  ancient  art  whose  causes  have  been 
considered. 

The  catacombs  are  variously  named,  according  to  the 
owners  of  the  land  on  which  the  excavation  was  begun. 

Aside  from  these  paintings  the  early  remains  of  Christian 
art  consist  mainly  of  coffin  sculptures.  The  sarcophagi 


FIG.  90.— EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SARCOPHAGUS  RELIEF. 
IN  THE  LIONS'  DEN. 


DANIEL 


carved  in  relief,  which  were  used  for  burial  by  the  later 
Romans,  continued  in  Christian  use  and 'were  likewise 
decorated  with  relief-sculptures  of  Christian  subjects.  The 
most  interesting  collections  of  these  sarcophagi  are  in 
the  Lateran  Museum  at  Rome,  at  Ravenna,  and  at  Aries  in 


136 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


Southern  France.  The  practice  of  making  these  sculp- 
tured coffins  disappeared  with  other  late  classic  influences 
and  was  gradually  abandoned  after  the  fifth  century  A.  D. 
It  is  a  consideration  which  helps  one  to  understand  the 
decadence  of  ancient  sculpture  that  in  early  Christian  art 
its  only  important  use  was  the  decoration  of  the  stone 

coffins,  and  that  even 
this  use  was  rapidly 
abandoned. 

Of  all  the  arts  of  de- 
sign, that  which  lasted 
longest  and  which 
survived  in  finest  style 
was  the  carving  of 
ivory.  This  was  prac- 
ticed for  book  covers 
and  for  the  '  'diptychs, ' ' 
or  tablets  of  ivory, 
which  were  distributed 
by  the  consuls  of  the 
later  empire  in  honor 
of  their  election  to 
office. 

It  is  obviously  in- 
different to  the  student 

in  what  material  or  how  small  and  apparently  insignificant 
the  object  is  which  illustrates  the  history  or  style  of  a 
period.  Partly  because  the  practice  of  this  art  was  a 
favored  one,  partly  because  the  ivory  tablets  did  not  offer 
the  temptation  to  pillage  in  the  times  of  the  German  inva- 
sions to  which  the  works  of  metal  were  exposed,  and 
partly  because  the  ivory  material  has  been  a  durable  one, 
it  is  especially  to  the  ivories  that  we  must  turn  when  we 


FIG.   91. — IVORY   CONSULAR    DIPTYCH. 

VICTORY,  WITH  GLOBE  AND  SCEPTER. 

Fourth  Century. 


The  Roman  Decadence.  137 

wish  to  find  a  survival  of  fair  antique  design  at  a  late 
period  of  the  Roman  decadence.  The  connecting  links 
with  the  later  art  of  the  Middle  Ages  are  consequently 
most  obvious  here  and  the  way  in  which  one  period  always 
merges  into  another  without  abrupt  changes  or  sudden 
revolutions  is  especially  well  illustrated  by  these  objects. 
A  curious  exception  to  the  general  law  of  inferior  style 
and  declining  force  in  the  later  Roman  art  is  offered  by  the 
art  of  glass.  As  the  practice  of  placing  objects  in  the 
tombs  generally  disappeared  with  the  Christian  conver- 
sions, we  cannot  trace  this  art  farther  than  the  sixth 
century,  but  when  its  relics  disappear  the  art  was  at  a  very 
high  level  of  excellence.*  The  explanation  is  a  commen- 
tary on  the  general  conditions  which  otherwise  explain  the 
decline  of  ancient  design.  Glass-making  was  not  an  art  in 
which  figure  designs  could  be  generally  introduced. 
Therefore  it  did  not  exhibit  subjects  from  pagan  art  and 
consequently  it  was  not  exposed  to  the  antagonisms  and 
destruction  which  befell  the  arts  of  temple  architecture,  of 
sculpture,  of  painting,  and  of  metal. 

*  There  is  a  piece  of  sixth  century  glass  illustrating  this  point  in  the  New 
York  Museum. 


CHAPTER  X. 

SUMMARY. 

ACCORDING  to  the  points  of  view  laid  down  in  this 
entire  account  of  the  Roman  art,  we  may  repeat  and 
emphasize  the  following  : 

(a)  A  certain  general  deterioration  of  taste  and  style  is 
visible  as  early  as  the  second  century  A.  D.,  although  the 
Roman  architecture  was  less  visibly  affected  than  other 
arts  by  this  movement.  This  deterioration  is  most  appar- 
ent in  the  provincial  territories  and  reacted  on  the  original 
and  native  centers.  It  became  more  visibly  apparent  in 
the  third  century,  which  was  the  last,  in  general,  of  a  dis- 
tinctly antique  art,  although  the  survival  of  antique  traits 
and  style  continued  in  Christian  art  long  after  this  time. 

(£)  The  decline  and  decadence  of  the  antique  art  re- 
sulted partly  from  its  wide  diffusion  over  territories  to 
which  it  was  not  originally  native  and  from  its  transfer 
to  populations  which  took  and  used  it  at  secondhand. 
Partly,  and  very  especially,  it  resulted  from  the  spirit  and 
influences  of  the  Christian  religion  and  its  antagonism  to 
the  subjects  and  ideals  of  pagan  art — for  any  attack  on  the 
basis  and  foundations  of  an  art  necessarily  results  in  sapping 
its  technical  powers — practice  and  patronage  being  the 
necessary  conditions  of  perfection.  The  decline  of  taste 
was  again  partly  caused  by  the  rise  of  the  lower  orders  of 
society,  who  were  especially  attached  to  the  Christian 
faith,  and  by  the  overthrow  in  power  and  influence  of  the 
higher  classes,  which  had  remained  attached  to  paganism. 

138 


Summary.  139 


The  decadence  of  art  was  again  caused  by  the  influences  of 
exterior  barbarism,  which  in  the  declining  physical  and 
moral  forces  of  the  empire  became  its  military  prop  and 
material  support. 

(V)  Roman  art  had  originally  the  same  general  qualities 
and  perfections,  wherever  found ;  within  the  boundaries 
established  by  the  ocean,  by  the  Irish  Channel,  the  high- 
lands of  Scotland,  the  Rhine,  Danube,  the  Black  Sea,  and 
by  the  Syrian,  Arabian,  and  African  Deserts.  Throughout 
this  area  it  represented  the  civilization  of  the  peoples  of 
the  given  countries  at  a  given  time,  and  essentially  it  did 
not  represent  the  importation  or  intrusion  of  objects  due 
to  military  conquest  and  foreign  colonization  or  the  erec- 
tion of  buildings  by  foreign  and  oppressive  rulers.  The 
"Romans"  of  the  given  time  were  all  the  freemen  of  all 
these  countries. 

(d?)  The  two  factors  of  Roman  art  and  Roman  civiliza- 
tion were  originally  the  technical  and  industrial  arts  of  the 
oriental  world  as  molded  and  transformed  by  Phenician  or 
Etruscan  and  Greek  style  and  influences,  and  secondly  the 
Greek  civilization  itself,  as  independently  developed  in  all 
the  territories  east  of  Italy,  which  subsequently  became 
provinces  of  the  empire,  and  which  remained  in  civilization 
after  that  political  change  as  they  had  been  before. 

(e)  Among  the  countries  of  the  Western  Mediterranean, 
North  Africa,  Spain,  and  Southern  France  had  experienced 
foreign  civilizing  influences  through  Phenicians  or  Greeks, 
or  both,  before  the  Roman  power  was  established  in  them. 
The  countries  most  distinctly  colonized  and  civilized  by 
the  native  Romans  alone,  after  the  time  of  Roman  imperial 
power  began,  were  Northern  France,  England,  Southern 
and  Western  Germany,  and  Hungary. 

(/)  Roman  art  or  civilization  was  that  of  the  Italians  at 


140  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

large    who    adopted    the    Latin    language    and    became 
"Romans." 

It  follows  from  these  points  that  the  ruins  and  works 
of  art  of  the  city  of  Rome  and  of  the  Italian  territory 
are  representative  for  many  other  countries  where  the 
destruction  of  the  monuments  has  been  more  complete. 
The  ruins  and  remains  of  other  countries  are  to  be  re- 
garded conversely  not  so  much  as  survivals  of  the  individ- 
ual objects  and  buildings  themselves  as  indications  of  an 
entire  and  universal  civilization  for  the  given  area.  We 
have  seen  that  the  most  perfect  picture  of  the  old  Roman 
world  as  regards  the  ruins  of  buildings  is  found  to-day 
in  the  remote  fringe  of  territory  bordering  on  the  Syrian 
Desert,  for  the  simple  reason  that  here  only  the  ruins  have 
not  been  treated  as  quarries  in  later  times.  It  will  also  be 
observed  that  we  owe  to  the  chance  destruction  of  two 
individual  towns  by  volcanic  eruptions  almost  all  the 
knowledge  that  we  possess  of  the  domestic  life  of  entire 
centuries  and  of  many  different  nations. 


PART  II. 
MEDIEVAL  ART. 


PART  II.— MEDIEVAL  ART. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE    PERIOD    OF    THE    GERMAN    INVASIONS. 

WE  may  now  return  to  our  elementary  summary  of 
ancient  European  history  (page  17)  for  a  conception  of  the 
life  of  the  countries  of  Northern  Europe  before  the  in- 
fluence of  Roman  history  began  to  reach  them.  What 
holds  broadly  for  Italy  at  one  date  holds  broadly  and 
successively  for  the  Germanic  or  Celtic  races  at  another 
and  a  later  date. 

In  the  main  the  history  of  the  art  of  the  Middle  Ages  is 
the  history  of  civilization  in  the  Germanic  or  Germanized 
countries  of  Europe,  with  the  all-important  modifications 
carried  by  the  Christian  religion. 

At  the  close  of  the  fourth  century  A.  D.  an  invasion 
of  Mongolian  tribes  from  Asia  flooded  the  territory  north 
of  the  Black  Sea  and  crowded  against  the  Gothic  (Ger- 
man) tribes  who  were  settled  north  of  the  lower  Danube. 
These  were  themselves  emigrants  from  Scandinavia,  whose 
appearance  in  Southern  Europe  a  century  before  had 
crowded  other  German  tribes  against  the  Rhine  frontiers 
and  had  consequently  been  the  cause  of  ceaseless  warfare 
for  the  Roman  legions  who  were  there  posted.  At  the 
appearance  of  the  Mongolian  Huns  the  Goths  first 
menaced  by  them  (at  this  date  Roman  Christians)  begged 
permission  to  pass  the  Danube  frontier,  and  this  was 
granted.  These  Visigoths  (West  Goths)  were  subse- 

143 


144  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

quently  taken  into  Roman  pay  as  mercenary  warriors, 
were  then  employed  in  warfare  between  rival  Roman 
emperors,  and  were  finally  settled  in  Northeastern  Spain, 
where  they  founded  the  Visigothic  kingdom  (412  A.  D.), 
which  spread  over  most  of  Spain  and  over  Southwestern 
France. 

Meantime  other  German  tribes  had  been  pushed  by  the 
Huns  across  the  Rhine  (406).  The  Roman  emperors 
of  Western  Europe*  had  now  become  so  dependent  on  the 
foreign  troops  that  one  of  their  chieftains  (Odoacer)  him- 
self took  the  title  of  King  of  Italy  in  476,  although  he  pro- 
fessed nominal  allegiance  to  the  eastern  emperor  and  con- 
sidered himself  as  his  military  deputy.  After  and  before 
this  time,  during  the  century  and  a  half  between  400  and 
550  A.  D.,  there  was  a  chaos  of  contending  armies  and 
a  general  mele*e  between  the  German  tribes  and  the  Roman 
civilization  of  the  West,  in  which  the  Christian  faith  of 
both  parties  and  the  German  habit  of  serving  nominally  or 
actually  as  Roman  soldiers  did  much  to  soften  and  mitigate 
the  horrors  of  war  and  the  sufferings  of  the  vanquished 
party. 

The  general  result  of  these  invasions  was  by  no  means 
the  extermination  or  even  conquest  (in  an  odious  sense)  of 
the  old  Romanized  populations  of  Italy,  Spain,  and 
France,  among  whom  so  many  Germanic  people  now 
became  settled.  But  the  general  result  was  most  dis- 
tinctly a  great  depression  or  absolute  cessation  of  com- 
mercial prosperity,  a  general  impoverishment  of  the  refined 
and  cultured  classes,  and  the  elevation  to  power  of  rude 
and  illiterate  military  chieftains  whose  equally  uncultivated 

*  As  the  title  of  emperor  corresponded  to  that  of  general-in-chief,  it  had  been 
customary  since  Diocletian's  time  (300  A.  D.)  on  account  of  the  constant  pressure 
on  the  frontiers  (of  Persia  as  well  as  of  Germany)  to  divide  the  imperial  power  be- 
tween generals  (emperors)  of  the  East  and  West.  These  were  frequently  rivals 
and  engaged  in  civil  wars  which  much  weakened  the  state. 


The  Period  of  the  German  Invasions. 


warriors  become  the  great  landowners  and  the  ruling  caste 
of  Europe.  Learning  took  refuge  in  the  church.  The 
clergy  were  the  only  power  which  could  cope  with  the 
rough  characters  of  the  military  caste. 

The  Germanic  settlers  were  sincere  although  supersti- 
tious and  illiterate  Christians,  and  the  old  Roman  rule  con- 
tinued in  this  spiritual  guise.  Bishops  and  priests  were  the 
successors  of  the  emperors  and  consuls. 


FIG.  92.— ANGLO-SAXON  WHALEBONE  CASKET.    British  Museum. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  states  of  England  (founded  after  449) 
were  the  only  ones  which  were  not  Christian  at  the  time  of 
foundation  and  England  was  the  only  country  in  which  the 
actual  displacement,  or  comparative  extermination,  of  one 
race  by  another  was  the  result  of  the  invasions.  These  in- 


146  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

volved,  for  the  time  being,  an  utter  downfall  of  the  old 
Roman  and  Christian  civilization  of  Britain,  whose  fate  was 
much  harder  than  that  of  any  other  Roman  country. 
During  the  sixth  century  the  Germanic  Prankish  state, 
from  which  modern  France  is  named,  gathered  power 
in  this  country  and  in  Germany.  In  Italy  the  half-century 
rule  of  the  Germanic  east  Goths  was  succeeded  by  that  of 
the  Germanic  Lombards.  Here  also  the  power  of  the  east 
Roman  emperor  was  again  permanently  established  over 
certain  coast  territories,  including  the  city  of  Rome,  but 
was  especially  powerful  at  Ravenna  and  in  neighboring 
territory  on  the  upper  Adriatic  coast  of  Italy. 

All  these  political  and  social  changes  point  to  and  ex- 
plain a  culmination  of  the  art  decadence  and  a  long  period 
of  at  least  apparent  barbarism  in  the  civilization  and  art  of 
Western  Europe.  There  are  some  main  things  to  be  said 
on  the  general  question  of  the  culture  of  this  time  down  to 
the  Italian  Renaissance  and  the  beginnings  of  modern 
history. 

The  Germans  before  the  invasions  were  by  no  means 
a  barbaric  or  savage  people,  but  the  warfare,  pillage, 
and  marauding  of  the  warrior  caste  lowered  their  morals 
when  their  homes  became  unsettled.  As  northerners  and 
as  Germans,  unused  to  the  luxuries  and  refinements  of 
Roman  life  and  the  climate  of  southern  countries,  their 
manners  became  more  lax  and  their  natures  were  deteri- 
orated after  the  invasions,  as  is  always  the  case  when 
a  ruder  people  is  thrown  into  contact  with  one  more 
highly  civilized.  There  is  then  an  undeniable  element 
of  semi-barbarism  in  the  culture  and  therefore  in  the  art  of 
the  earlier  Middle  Ages. 

Moreover,  there  were  successive  setbacks  involved  in 
the  leavening  of  still  other  uncultivated  tribes  or  nations 


The  Period  of  the  'German  Invasions.  147 

after  the  process  had  been  accomplished  for  some.  The 
progress  which  had  been  made  in  France  between  the 
sixth  and  ninth  centuries  was  again  arrested  by  the  North- 
men's raids  from  Scandinavia  in  the  ninth  and  tenth 
centuries.  The  Danes  in  England  were  the  same  people 


FIG.  93,— TENTH  CF:NTURY  WALL  PAINTING.     THE  ANNUNCIATION. 
Church  of  San  Clemente,  Rome. 

under  another  name  and  did  the  same  injury  here.  After 
the  Danes  and  the  Northmen  had  been  worked  over 
into  the  medieval  system  the  same  process  had  to  be 
repeated  with  the  Hungarians  of  Eastern  Europe  (bar- 
barian settlers  from  Asia  in  the  tenth  century),  with  the 
Slavonic  populations  of  Eastern  Europe,  and  with  the 
native  inhabitants  of  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden. 
These  successive  and  repeated  contests  of  dawning  civiliza- 
tion with  new  races  and  new  difficulties  absorbed  much 
of  the  energy  of  the  medieval  populations  and  retarded 
the  progress  of  those  which  had  been  first  Romanized. 


148 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


Of  the  entire  Middle  Ages,  however,  it  must  be  said 
that  much  which  appears  to  us  barbarous  in  their  design  is 
merely  the  result  of  the  early  Christian  prejudice  against 
the  study  of  natural  form  and  of  the  early  Christian  in- 
difference to  natural  beauty.  The  learner  could  not  rise 
above  his  teacher  in  such  a  matter  because  he  had 
otherwise  too  much  to  learn,  and  the  Germanic  states 
of  Europe  long  accepted  the  style  of  the  Roman  decadence 
with  the  same  unquestioning  faith  which  they  professed  in 

their  new  religion.  It 
was  in  fact  entirely  re- 
ligious art  which  they 
practiced  and  this  was 
naturally  a  borrowed 
art.  In  our  own  times 
design  is  taught  for  its 
own  sake  and  for  the 
sake  of  imitating  na- 
ture. As  the  imitation 
of  nature  was  not  the 
object  of  the  medieval 
art,  which  only  aimed 
at  religious  instruction  or  expression  of  religious  sentiment, 
there  was  less  attention  to  the  question  of  nature. 

The  ugliest  and  most  barbaric  designs  of  the  period 
become  intensely  interesting  when  we  view  them  as  historic 
monuments  and  as  traditional  types.  The  subject  and  its 
meaning  are  always  to  be  considered  first  and  the  execu- 
tion second.  From  the  subject  we  learn  what  interested 
the  people,  how  great  was  their  faith,  and  how  this  faith 
was  expressed  in  every  possible  visible  way  which  was 
open  to  them. 


FIG.  94. — CARVED  IVORY  BOOK  COVERS. 

SAINTS  OR  APOSTLES.     Ravenna. 

Tenth  Century. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    BYZANTINE    ART. 

IT  is  not  till  the  eleventh  century  that  we  see  spon- 
/taneous  efforts  at  improved  design  in  Western  Europe, 
and  for  that  date  the  existing  monuments  of  such  spon- 
taneous efforts  are  quite  rare — for  instance,  the  bronze 
cathedral  doors  made  under  direction  of  Bishop  Bernward 
of  Hildesheim.  Meantime  we  see  either  survivals  of  the 
old  classic  decadence,  as  represented  by  some  of  the 
sarcophagi  of  Ravenna  (Figs.  89,  90);  or  efforts  of  more 
or  less  untrained  barbarism  or  ignorance  (Figs.  92,  93); 
or  what  is  known  as  the  "Byzantine"  style.  This  last 
was  native  to  Eastern  Europe  and  the  Roman  territories  of 
the  eastern  Mediterranean,  but  is  found  in  widespread 
examples  also  in  all  parts  of  Western  Europe. 

It  should  be  explained  that  these  three  classes  of  art  works 
are  not  to  be  conceived  as  existing  at  one  time  in  one  ter- 
ritory. The  coexistence  of  the  Byzantine  style  with  semi- 
barbaric  art  is  to  be  expected.  The  coexistence  of  the 
survival  of  the  older  classic  decadence  (Fig.  90)  with  the 
Byzantine  style  is  also  to  be  expected.  But  the  classic  de- 
cadence survival  will,  generally  speaking,  exclude  the  bar- 
baric art  and  for  obvious  reasons.  Being  a  survival  it  is 
confined  to  certain  localities  which  for  one  reason  or  another 
had  escaped  the  more  overwhelming  devastations  of  the  in- 
vasions. Aries  (in  Southern  France),  Rome,  and  Ravenna, 
are  the  places  where  this  style  is  best  represented  and  it 
scarcely  survived  the  sixth  century.  Otherwise  we  find  its 

149 


FIG.  95.— CHURCH  OF  ST.  MARK.    VESTIBULE  WITH  MOSAICS.     Venice. 


The  Byzantine  Art.  151 

examples,  and  some  peculiarly  fine  ones,  in  ivories,  and  for 
the  reason  that  this  art  was  much  practiced  and  consequently 
preserved  a  higher  traditional  standard  of  excellence. 

The  Byzantine  style  is  naturally  found  coexistent  with 
the  semi- barbaric  art  because  it  represented  the  intrusive 
art  of  imported  Byzantine  workmen  or  was  itself  actually 
imported.  We  also  find  various  stages  of  imitation  of  the 
Byzantine  style,  so  that  there  are  all  possible  transitions 
between  a  wholly  clumsy,  untrained,  early,  medieval  effort 
and  a  highly  finished  product  of  the  pure  Byzantine  style 
(Figs.  92,  94,  96). 

We  shall  now  consider  this  style  somewhat  more  closely. 
As  regards  its  name  we  observe  that  Byzantium  was  the 
older  title  of  the  Greek  colony  on  the  Bosphorus,  whose 
site  was  selected  by  the  emperor  Constantine  in  the  fourth 
century  for  the  new  capital  of  his  empire.  As  to  all  the 
reasons  which  inspired  Constantine  in  this  transfer  of 
the  seat  of  the  capital  from  Rome  we  are  not  clear,  but 
the  most  important  one  is  obvious.  As  the  residence  of 
the  emperor  (who  was  always  a  military  man  and  com- 
mander in  chief  of  the  army  above  everything  else) 
Byzantium  was  halfway  between  the  two  frontiers  which 
were  most  in  danger  in  the  fourth  century,  viz. ,  the  lower 
Danube  and  the  upper  Euphrates.  Although  this  capital 
has  always  been  known  as  Constantinople  since  the  time  of 
Constantine — the  adjective  "Byzantine"  (probably  for 
reasons  of  euphony  as  preferable  to  ' '  Constantinopolitan ' '  ) 
has  always  been  applied  by  moderns  to  the  empire  whose 
sole  capital  it  became  after  the  German  tribes  founded 
their  new  states  in  the  Western  Empire.  The  Byzantine 
Empire  is  simply,  therefore,  the  Roman  Empire  under  a 
new  name,  which  name  is  applied  to  it  for  the  period  after 
the  German  invasions  and  is  therefore  to  be  understood  as 


152  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

meaning  the  empire  bereft  of  those  territories  which 
became  the  Germanic  states  of  the  Middle  Ages.  As  the 
Ottoman  Turks  conquered,  in  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth, 
and  sixteenth  centuries,  all  the  countries  of  the  Byzantine 
Empire,  a  map  of  Turkey  in  Europe  and  Turkey  in  Asia 
in  its  widest  extent  (and  before  recent  nineteenth  century 
losses)  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  its  territories.  In  its  most 
flourishing  period,  which  was  the  time  of  the  emperor 
Justinian  (sixth  century),  it  included  for  a  short  time  also 
the  whole  of  Italy,  and  it  retained  possession  of  Ravenna 
and  the  "exarchate  of  Ravenna"  until  the  close  of  the 
eighth  century.  It  also  ruled  in  Justinian's  time  the  whole 
of  North  Africa.  This  territory,  together  with  Egypt  and 
Syria,  passed  to  the  Arabs  in  the  seventh  century.  The 
empire  lasted  in  Asia  Minor  till  the  fourteenth  century, 
and  in  Eastern  Europe  till  the  fifteenth  century  (1453). 

These  political  facts  are  essential  to  the  comprehension 
of  the  influence  of  Byzantine  art  in  Western  Europe  and  of 
the  long-continued  duration  of  this  influence. 

The  peculiar  style  of  Byzantine  design  is  shown  by  a 
number  of  illustrations  (Figs.  96-100),  which  are,  how- 
ever, highly  unfair  to  it  where  color  is  concerned,  and 
that  is  to  say  in  the  case  of  all  mosaics.  The  evolution  of 
this  style  from  the  earlier  classic  art  of  the  Roman-Greek 
eastern  countries  is  not  represented  by  existing  monu- 
ments. We  find  it  in  the  sixth  century  fully  developed, 
and  the  transition  stages  are  not  well  known  to  us. 

It  is  clearly  a  style  which  grew  out  of  traditional  repe- 
tition of  set  designs — pictures  of  saints,  Bible  stories,  etc. — 
without  the  least  reference  to  correction  by  observation  of 
natural  forms,  and  this  indifference  to  nature  has  been 
explained  as  an  element  of  the  eaj-ly  Christian  movement 
\  (page  129).  The  figures  are  unnaturally  elongated,  the 


FIG.  96.— BYZANTINE  MOSAIC.     St.  Mark's,  Venice. 


154  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

attitudes  are  formal  and  motionless,  the  expressions  are 
rigid,  conventional,  and  lifeless.  The  technical  execution 
is  frequently  or  generally  of  finished  perfection  for  the 
given  material. 

Mosaics. 

Aside  from  architecture  itself,  the  best  efforts  of  Byzan- 
tine art  were  devoted  to  church  decoration  and  especially 
to  decoration  in  glass  mosaics.  It  is  here  that  the  east 
Romans  succeeded  best  and  that  their  art,  for  the  given 
purpose,  was  entirely  adequate.  In  this  art  also,  their 
own  workmen  were  sought  for  in  all  other  countries,  and 
through  this  art  their  influence  is  most  apparent  and  was 
most  felt  in  Western  Europe. 

The  most  important  surviving  example  of  a  church 
interior  decorated  with  mosaics  is  the  Church  of  St.  Mark 
at  Venice,  begun  in  the  tenth  century,  which  is  also  the 
tomb  and  shrine  of  the  (supposed)  body  of  the  saint, 
which  was  brought  at  that  time  from  Alexandria,  in 
Egypt.  The  mosaics  are  not  all  of  the  date  of  the  church 
and  some  have  been  considerably  restored,  but  the  general 
effect  corresponds  to  what  it  has  always  been.  The  back- 
grounds of  the  glass  mosaics  are  invariably  gold,*  the 
other  colors  are  brilliant  or  warm  in  tone  and  beautifully 
harmonized  and  contrasted.  The  formalism  of  the  designs 
assists  the  color  effects  and  is  largely  essential  to  them. 
This  is  because  colors  are  more  effective  when  boldly 
opposed  and  contrasted  with  one  another,  and  less  effective 
when  connected  by  shaded  transitions  or  modified  tints. 
When  colors  are  directly  contrasted  there  must  be  a 
boundary  between  them,  that  is  to  say,  a  formal  line. 

*  In  the  developed  Byzantine  style.    A  blue  background  was  used  in  the  very 
early  Christian  mosaics. 


The  Byzantine  Art. 


155 


That  these  outlines  may  be  beautiful  and  in  a  sense  natural 
is  true,  and  the  Greeks  so  understood  the  art  of  decorating 
with  figures,  but  it  is  also  true  that  as  far  as  color  results 
are  concerned  the  beauty  of  the  form  is  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence. This  appears  in  the  fine  color  effects  of  many 
oriental  designs  whose  forms  are  stiff  and  unnatural.  It  is 
when  we  study  the  mosaics  in  their  architectural  position 
and  in  their  decorative  "  color  results  that  the  peculiar 
Byzantine  style  is  seen  at  its  best  and  for  the  given  use  and 


FIG.  97.— BYZANTINE  MOSAIC.     PROCESSION  OF  SAINTS. 
San  Apollinare  Nuovo,  Ravenna.     Sixth  Century. 

place  it  then  seems  absolutely  perfect — from  a  decorative 
point  of  view. 

For  some  reasons  the  mosaics  of  the  Ravenna  churches 
are  superior  to  those  first  mentioned.  The  fifth  and  sixth 
centuries  did  best. in  this  art,  and  those  of  St.  Mark's  are 
too  late  in  time  to  represent  the  best  works  as  regards 
composition  and  detail.  It  is  in  the  preservation  of  the 
color  effect  of  an  entire  interior  that  St.  Mark's  stands  fore- 


1 


156 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


most.  At  Ravenna,  San  Apollinare  Nuovo  exhibits  an 
interior  whose  side  walls  are  still  entirely  covered  with 
mosaics  of  the  sixth  century,  the  only  existing  church  oi 
the  basilica  type  in  the  world  which  can  claim  this  distinc- 
tion. The  main  wall  surfaces  show  processions  of  saints 
issuing  from  the  cities  of  Ravenna  and  Jerusalem  and 
terminating  with  an  Adoration  of  the  Magi  and  a  group  of 
angels  with  the  Madonna  and  infant  Savior.  The  Church 
of  San  Apollinare  in  Classe,  at  Ravenna  (sixth  century), 

has  preserved  the 
mosaic  of  its  apse, 
or  choir,  dating  a 
century  later  than  the 
church,  a  picture  of 
Christ  as  the  Good 
Shepherd  with  his 
flock.  In  the  tomb 
chapel  of  Galla  Pla- 
cidia,  at  Ravenna, 
there  is  a  fine  mosaic 
of  the  fifth  century, 
"Christ  as  the  Good 
Shepherd."  In  the 
Church  of  San  Vitale, 
at  Ravenna,  are  the 
famous  mosaic  por- 
traits of  the  emperor 
Justinian  and  his 
empress,  Theodora, 
surrounded  respectively  by  courtiers  and  ladies  of  the 
court  (Fig.  98). 

The  mosaics  of  the  ancient  Roman  churches  are  gener- 
ally of  inferior  quality  or  preservation,  but  the  apse  mosaic 


FIG.  98.— BYZANTINE    MOSAIC  DETAIL. 

HEAD  OF  THE  EMPRESS  THEODORA. 

San  Vitale,  Ravenna. 

Sixth  Century. 


The  Byzantine  Art.  157 

of  the  Church  of  Santi  Cosma  and  Damiano  on  the  Roman 
Forum  has  a  sixth  century  mosaic  of  the  Savior  as  Judge, 
in  colossal  proportions,  which  is  the  grandest  existing 
work  of  early  Christian  art.  The  Church  of  St.  Sophia 
at  Constantinople  (now  a  mosque)  has  mosaics  entirely 
filling  its  dome,  but  these  have  been  whitewashed  by  the 
Turks  and  are  not  visible. 

Of  later  date  than  the  early  mosaics  of  St.  Mark's  or  of 
Ravenna  are  those  of  the  Cathedral  of  Monreale,  near 
Palermo,  and  of  the  Capella  Palatina  at  Palermo.  Both  of 
these,  and  especially  the  former,  are  magnificent  instances 
of  this  system  of  decoration. 

Aside  from  the  cities  or  churches  mentioned,  remains 
of  early  church  mosaics  are  almost  unknown,  although 
there  were  once  many  of  them  in  Europe.  The  art  de- 
clined rapidly  after  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries. 

The  causes  of  this  decline  were  especially  the  inde- 
pendent developments  of  native  talent  in  Western  Europe 
after  this  date  and  the  abandonment  of  the  habit  of  em- 
ploying the  Byzantine  workmen  who  were  familiar  with 
the  art.  Fresco  paintings  then  took  the  place  of  mosaics 
both  in  Northern  and  Southern  Europe,  and  almost 
nothing  was  attempted  in  this  line  in  Italy  after  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  the  rise  of  the  school 
of  wall  painting  headed  by  Giotto.  Survivals  of  the  art  at 
a  later  date,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  decorations  of  St. 
Peter's  in  the  seventeenth  century,  do  not  remotely  com- 
pare in  effect  with  the  Byzantine  works,  as  they  were 
imitations  of  the  style  of  the  oil  paintings  of  the  same  date. 
A  realistic  pictorial  style  is  inconsistent  with  the  con- 
ditions of  wall  decoration  because  the  shadings  and  tran- 
sitions of  color  prevent  contrast,  and  the  objects  taken  in 
mass,  being  too  numerous  and  too  much  detailed,  lose  the 


158 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


necessary  effects  of  dimension,  simplicity,  and  balance.  In 
mosaic  there  is  the  farther  necessary  and  natural  limitation 
inherent  in  the  coarse  material  and  in  the  size  of  the 
individual  cubes  of  which  the  picture  was  composed.  No 
effort  was  made  in  the  Byzantine  style  to  refine  the  picture 


FIG.  99.— BYZANTINE  MOSAIC.    THH  DAY  OF  PENTECOST. 
Tomb  of  Galla  Placidia,  Ravenna.     Fifth  Century. 

beyond  the  natural  limitations  of  the  material  used  and 
this  is  their  great  decorative  merit.  Fig.  98  illustrates 
this  frank  exhibition  of  the  material. 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  stiffness,  rigidity, 
and  formalism  of  Byzantine  art  were  exaggerated  and 
perpetuated  by  the  methods  of  the  mosaic  style,  which 
subsequently  reacted  on  the  minor  arts.  Byzantine  oil 
paintings  are  often  obvious  imitations  of  the  mosaic  style 
(Fig.  100). 


The  Byzantine  Art. 


159 


It  is  from  this  point  of  view  therefore  that  the  topic  of 
Byzantine  painting  is  best  approached.  The  subjects  were 
invariably  religious  and  treated  traditionally.  The  illus- 
tration represents  the  type  of  panel  pictures  which  were 
general  in  Italy  until  the  fourteenth  century.  The  art  of 
the  Greek  Church  in  eastern  Mediterranean  countries  has 
perpetuated  this  style  down  to  the  present  century.  It 
still  survives  also  in  Russia,  which  obtained  its  civilization, 
art,  and  religion  from  the  Byzantine  state.  Sculpture,  as 
practiced  for  life-size  figures,  was  almost  absolutely  un- 
known to  Byzantine  art,  which  shared  the  helplessness 
and  incapacity  of  all  early  Christian  times  in  this  sense. 
But  there  was  also  at  one  period  of  Byzantine  history  a 
movement  in  the  Greek  Church  which  was  headed  and 
promoted  by  certain  emperors  (the 
iconoclasts,  or  image-breakers) 
which  antagonized  the  use  of  images 
in  churches,  paintings  included.  As 
a  theory  enforced  by  law  or  religious 
zeal  the  iconoclast  movement  was 
not  lasting  ;  but,  in  matter  of  fact, 
the  Byzantine  art  only  practiced 
sculpture  of  the  human  figure  in 
exceptional  cases. 

It  is  mainly  in  relief  carvings, 
which  approximate  to  pictorial  art, 
that  the  art  of  sculpture  is  found — 
in  wood-carving,  in  ivory  carving,  and  in  worked  metal. 
These  materials  were  variously  employed  for  caskets, 
especially  reliquaries,  shrines,  altars,  book-covers,  trip- 
tychs,  etc.  The  "triptychs"  were  small  altars  with  fold- 
ing panels,  or  wings,  used  for  private  devotion. 

The  foregoing   historical   accounts  of   the   German   in- 


FIG.  100. — BYZANTINE  MA- 
DONNA OF  A  TYPE  COM- 
MON IN  ITALY. 


160  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

vasions  and  Germanic  states,  of  the  Byzantine  Empire, 
and  of  the  general  conditions  of  civilization  in  Eastern  and 
Western  Europe,  as  assisted  by  the  illustrations,  will  give 
a  fair  idea  of  the  medieval  art  of  design  between  the  fifth 
and  the  eleventh  centuries  (500-1000  A.  D. ).  No  gen- 
eral account  of  this  time  would,  however,  be  complete 
which  did  not  emphasize  the  importance  of  Irish  civiliza- 
tion and  of  the  influence  of  the  Irish  monks  in  England, 
France,  and  Germany.  During  the  invasions  Ireland  be- 
came the  refuge  of  the  art  and  learning  of  Western 
Europe  ;  for  this  island  escaped  the  terrors  of  invasion 
and  consequently  became  a  center  for  the  diffusion  of  later 
civilization  in  Europe,  only  second  in  importance  to  the 
Byzantine  Empire.  Otherwise,  it  may  be  said  of  this 
period  that  the  forces  of  civilization  in  Western  Europe 
w-ere  weakest  in  Italy,  because  the  ruin  of  the  old  culture 
was  most  sensibly  felt  there,  and  that  they  were  strongest 
(outside  of  Ireland)  in  the  Prankish  state,  which  finally 
rose  to  a  territorial  power  under  the  emperor  Charlemagne 
(ninth  century)  which  reached  to  the  Elbe,  to  the  borders 
of  Bohemia  and  Hungary  in  Germany,  to  the  Ebro  in 
Spain,  and  which  included  the  greater  part  of  Italy. 


CHAPTER  III. 

EARLY    CHRISTIAN    ARCHITECTURE. 

WE  have  so  far  left  unconsidered  the  most  interesting 
and  the  most  important  department  of  the  art  history 
of  the  early  Middle  Ages,  viz.,  its  architecture.  There 
are  no  remains  of  any  buildings  in  Northern  Europe,  pre- 
ceding the  Roman  period,  unless  the  open-air  temple 
inclosures  of  the  older  Celtic  time,  like  Stonehenge  on 
Salisbury  Plain  in  England,  should  be  considered  as  build- 
ings. We  have  seen  what  monuments  of  architecture  were 
universal  in  certain  European  countries  under  the  empire, 
and  we  have  seen  that  a  century  of  church  building  had 
passed  away  in  direct  development  from  the  Roman  classic 
art  before  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  West. 

The  changes  in  architectural  style  which  are  apparent 
after  the  triumph  of  Christianity  in  the  empire  were  not 
less  marked  than  those  which  affected  the  arts  of  design. 
It  is  true  that  we  can  hardly  point  to  a  surviving  church  in 
Northern  Europe  of  earlier  date  than  the  eleventh  century. 
Crypts  (underground  chapels)  or  small  portions  of 
churches  built  into  later  ones  are  occasionally  met  with. 
The  chapel  built  by  Charlemagne  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  in 
Germany,  now  a  portion  of  the  later  cathedral,  and  one 
or  two  oratories  (small  chapels)  in  Ireland  are  among  the 
rare  exceptions.  But  certain  surviving  churches  of  Italy 
enable  us  to  picture  the  general  style  and  arrangements 
of  buildings  which  have  disappeared. 

Aside  from  the  Church  of  the  Manger  at  Bethlehem  and, 

161 


162 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


possibly,  the  Dome  of  the  Rock  at  Jerusalem,  now  known 
as  the  Mosque  of  Omar,  whose  date  is  not  absolutely 
certain,  our  references  for  churches  between  the  fourth  and 
ninth  centuries,  inclusive,  are  mainly  confined  to  Rome 
and  Ravenna.  The  chief  exception  is  the  most  important 


FIG.  ioi.— SAN  LORENZO.    Rome.    Sixth  Century. 

building  of  all,  the  Church  of  St.  Sophia  at  Constantinople, 
which  has  been  a  mosque  since  the  Turkish  conquest  of 
1453.  There  are  also  interesting  ruins  of  ancient  churches 
in  Armenia,  in  Northern  Syria,  and  in  the  east  Jordan 
country. 

As  regards  the  ancient  surviving  churches  of  Rome 
it  must  be  said  that  those  which  have  preserved  their  old 
appearance  are  comparatively  unimportant  in  respect  to 
size  or  decorative  details.  Others  of  larger  size  and 


Early  Christian  Architecture. 


163 


greater  fame  have  been  so  transformed  b/  the  restorations, 
rebuilding,  and  would-be  improvements  of  later  date  that 
they  have  absolutely  no  value  as  archseologic  references. 

It  is  in  Ravenna  that  the  most  interesting  survivals  of 
the  early  Christian  buildings  of  Europe  are  preserved. 
This  town,  which  is  situated  on  the  upper  Adriatic  shore  of 
Italy,  is  surrounded  by  a  swampy  territory  which  has 
tended  to  isolate  it  from  the  commerce  and  intercourse 


FIG.  102. — SAN  APOLLINARE  Nuovo.      Ravenna.     Sixth  Century. 

of  later  times.  It  has  been  a  poor  city,  without  enterprise, 
and  consequently  without  the  wealth  which  in  other 
quarters  has  inspired  the  destruction  of  the  ancient 
buildings,  either  by  reconstructions  and  restorations  of 


1 64 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


them  or  by  actuai  displacement  in  favor  of  new  ones.  It  is 
significant  of  this  general  law  that  the  cathedral  church 
of  Ravenna  is  a  modern  building,  but  the  "  improvement" 
of  Ravenna,  fortunately  for  the  history  of  art,  stopped 
here.  The  situation  which  in  later  times  has  made  Ra- 
venna poor  was  once  the  cause  of  her  prosperity.  In  the 


FIG.  103. — SAN  APOLLINARE  IN  CLASSE.      Ravenna.    Sixth  Century. 

convulsions  of  the  fifth  century,  when  the  western  emperors 
had  successively  abandoned  Rome  and  Milan  as  their  capi- 
tals, Ravenna  was  chosen  as  their  final  post  of  refuge  and 
defense  and  consequently  became  an  important  connecting 
link  with  East  Rome  and  with  Byzantine  art  and  civiliza- 
tion. In  the  early  sixth  century  it  was  the  seat  of  the 
Ostro-Gothic  Empire  of  Theodoric  the  Great,  and  in  the 


Early   Christian  Architecture.  165 

later  sixth  century  it  was  the  capital  of  Justinian's  rule  in 
Italy.  Ravenna  then  became  the  head  of  that  "  exarchate 
of  Ravenna"  whose  territories  continued  Byzantine  until 
the  time  of  the  Prankish  king  Pepin,  the  father  of  Charle- 
magne. Pepin  gave  them  to  the  popes  and  thus  founded 
the  States  of  the  Church  and  the  papal  temporal  power. 

There  are  three  Ravenna  churches  of  the  sixth  century 
which  are  especially  important  buildings  for  the  history 
of  art — San  Apollinare  Nuovo,  San  Apollinare  in  Classe, 
and  San  Vitale.  Some  of  their  mosaics  have  been  already 
mentioned  (Figs.  97,  98).  We  will,  however,  not  consider 
these  buildings  in  detail  aside  from  a  general  account  of 
the  system  of  other  churches  which  they  have  survived  to 
illustrate. 

There  were  two  distinct  types  of  churches  in  use  during 
the  centuries  before  the  Romanesque  cathedrals,  whose  his- 
tory begins  after  the  year  1000  A.  D.  One  was  a  continua- 
tion of  the  type  of  the  Roman  business  exchange,  or  basilica 
(page  85);  the  other  was  a  continuation  of  the  type  of  the 
great  domed  apartments  of  the  Roman  baths  (page  83). 
The  former  is  the  type  which  developed  into  the  later  medie- 
val cathedrals,  and  on  this  account  may  be  given  first  notice. 

It  is  in  the  plan  of  these  buildings  rather  than  in  details 
or  style  of  ornament  that  the  Roman  system  survived.  We 
have  one  ancient  building  in  Rome,  the  Triumphal  Arch  of 
Constantine,  which  shows  that  the  Roman  system  of  engaged 
exterior  classic  columns  and  entablatures  was  used  in  Italy 
in  the  fourth  century,  but  there  are  no  Christian  churches 
which  show  any  survivals  of  this  system  of  ornament. 
Their  exterior  walls  are  of  plain  masonry,  broken  only 
by  windows  and  occasionally  relieved  by  blind  arcades.* 


*  Blind  arcades  are  simulated  arches  with  simulated  narrow  pier  supports. 
These  admit  elsewhere  of  a  slighter,  thinner  wall  construction.    See  Fig.  105. 


1 66 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


The  particular  constructive  system  of  the  pagan  Roman 
basilicas  which  was  continued  by  the  Christian  churches 
was  not  like  that  of  the  Basilica  of  Constantine  (Fig.  51), 
one  of  vaulted  ceilings  of  masonry  or  concrete.  The 
church  basilicas  were  timber  roofed.  This  is  one  of  the 
important  points  in  which  they  differ  from  the  typical 
Romanesque  cathedrals,  which  were  vaulted.  Such  a 

timber-roofed  basilica, 
whose  broken  columns 
are  one  of  the  ruins  of 
Rome,  was  the  one 
built  by  the  Roman 
emperor  Trajan. 

The  ground  plan  of 
a  Roman  basilica  was 
oblong  and  rectangu- 
lar, with  longitudinal 
divisions  into  a  central 
nave  and  side  aisles 
and  terminating  in  a 
semicircular  apse,  or 
large  niche,  facing  the 
entrance.  This  apse 
was  the  seat  of  the 
Roman  magistrate  and 
was  allotted  with  the 
adjacent  portion  of  the 
building  to  the  uses  of 
a  court  of  justice.  It  was  parted  from  the  rest  of  the  build- 
ing by  a  transverse  row  of  columns.  These  columns  are 
not  found  in  the  church  basilicas,  which  devoted  this 
part  of  the  building  to  the  altar,  to  the  officiating  clergy, 
and  to  the  bishop.  In  the  times  of  the  invasions  the  bishop 


FIG.  104.— SAN  APOLLINARE  Nuovo. 
Ravenna.     Sixth  Century. 


Early    Christian  Architecture. 


167 


of  the  city  took  the  place  of  the  earlier  Roman  magistrate 
in  many  senses  and  there  was  a  certain  continuity  of  his- 
tory in  this  arrangement. 

The  apse  is  thus  the  origin  of  the  choir  of  the  cathedral, 


FIG.  105. — SAN  APOLLINARE  IN  CLASSE.    Ravenna.    Sixth  Century. 

which  finally  reached  enormous  dimensions  in  the  period  of 
the  Gothic. 

The  division  of  the  nave  and  aisles  is  also  one  of  great 
importance  in  the  plan  of  the  later  cathedrals.  This  results 
from  the  higher  elevation  of  the  nave  as  arranged  for 


1 68  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

the  convenience  of  lighting  the  structure  from  above  ;  for  it 
is  the  supports  of  the  nave  which  constitute  the  division. 
The  arrangement  is  additionally  explained  by  its  conve- 
nience for  roofing  wide  structures  with  timber  beams. 

If  it  be  asked  why  the  plan  of  a  business  exchange  was 
adopted  for  churches,  we  can  only  answer  that  the  pagan 
basilicas  were  places  of  large  public  concourse,  such  as 
were  a_lso  needed  in  Christian  worship ;  whereas  the 
temples  of  antiquity  were  shrines  for  statues  and  not  in- 
tended for  large  gatherings.  The  dimensions  of  the  antique 
temple  were  much  increased  by  the  exterior  porticoes,  but 
the  interiors  were  not  generally  of  large  dimensions.  It 
was  therefore  the  interior  dimensions  of  the  basilica  which 
caused  its  plan  to  be  chosen  for  churches. 

The  supporting  system  of  the  church  basilicas  is  one 
which  was  only  known  in  very  late  Roman  buildings 
and  there  is  only  one  Roman  ruin  in  Europe  which  now 
exhibits  it — the  palace  of  Diocletian  at  Spalatro.  The 
supports  were  columns  connected  with  arches.  In  ancient 
Roman^  use  arches  were  supported  by  piers,  built  of 
aggregated  masonry,  and  the  columns  and  entablatures 
were  ornamental  surface  additions  (Figs.  32,  36,  52). 
Columns,  when  used  in  actual  construction,  always  sup- 
ported the  straight  stone  beam,  or  lintel  (Figs.  47,  48, 
81),  as.  was  the  method  of  the  Greeks. 

The  use  of  the  column  and  the  arch  to  support  the  walls 
of  the  nave  (Figs.  102,  103)  is  not  absolutely  universal  in 
the  ancient  churches.  One  or  two  of  the  earlier  churches 
of  Rome  employ  the  straight  beam,  as  does  also  the 
Church  of  the  Manger  at  Bethlehem,  but  the  beams  are 
not  detailed  in  the  architrave  and  frieze  divisions  of  the 
classic  entablature.  In  these  exceptional  uses  of  the  lintel 
we  note  a  survival  of  antique  traditions,  which  soon  yielded 


Early   Christian  Architecture. 


169 


to  the  new  system  and  absolutely  disappeared.  The  con- 
struction of  arches  and  columns  was  ultimately  abandoned 
in  the  Romanesque  and  Gothic  systems  for  arches  and 
piers.  Thus  we  emphasize  the  use  of  the  arch  and  column 
and  the  use  of  the  timber  ceiling  as  important  points  of  dis- 
tinction between  the  system  of  the  later  cathedrals  and  the 
system  of  the  basilicas. 

Finally,  the  origin  of  the  word  ' '  basilica  ' '  and  its  trans- 
fer to  Christian 
churches  are  matters 
of  interest.  As  de- 
rived from  the  Greek 
word ,3affdeu$  (king), 
the  word  basilica 
(royal  house)  was  a 
fitting  designation  for 
a  church,  though  not 
apparently  for  a  busi- 
ness exchange.  It 
was  first  used  in 
Athens  and  was  there 
applied  to  a  public  building  which  had  been  named  after 
one  of  the  archons,  or  elective  officers,  who  retained  the 
title  of  basileus,  after  the  abolition  of  the  monarchy,  an 
event  antedating  any  records  of  ancient  Athenian  history. 
His  office  was  judicial. 

The  bell  tower  of  the  early  churches  was  a  distinct 
structure  (Figs.  104,  105).  It  was  subsequently  attached 
to  the  building  in  the  Romanesque  period  and  was  often 
doubled  or  quadrupled.  It  then  developed  into  the  Gothic 
tower  or  spire  and  so  into  the  modern  steeple.  Through- 
out the  Middle  Ages  in  Italy,  however,  the  bell  tower  was 
generally  a  separate  structure. 


FIG.  106.— SAN  VITALE.    Ravenna. 
Sixth  Century. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    DOME    CHURCHES. 

THE  important  early  surviving  illustrations  of  the  dome 
churches  are  the  chapel  built  by  Charlemagne,  already  men- 
tioned (page  161),  the  Church  of  St.  Mark  at  Venice  (page 
173,  Fig.  95),  the  Church  of  San  Vitale  at  Ravenna  (Fig. 
1 06),  the  Church  of  St.  Sophia  at  Constantinople,  and  pos- 
sibly the  "Dome  of  the  Rock,"  or  Mosque  of  Omar,  at 
Jerusalem.  It  was  the  theory  of  the  English  architect,  Fer- 
gusson,  that  this  was  a  Christian  church  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, built  over  the  supposed  site  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher.* 
The  present  dome,  the  exterior  decoration  of  porcelain  tiles, 
and  the  inserted  pointed-arch  windows  are  Arab  recon- 
structions. Two  baptisteries  at  Ravenna  (fifth  century) 
and  the  Baptistery  of  St.  John  Lateran  at  Rome  (fifth  cen- 
tury) are  smaller  buildings  of  the  same  general  type. 

Among  the  buildings  named  and  illustrated  those  are  most 
obviously  available  as  indications  of  the  type  which  are  most 
obviously  of  a  radiating  plan.  The  domed  ceiling  was  natu- 
rally used  for  such  a  building  and  herein  lies  the  distinction 
as  compared  with  the  long  perspective  view  of  the  basilicas. 
It  was  from  the  great  domed  apartments  of  the  Roman 
baths  that  this  plan  of  construction  was  adopted  and  even 
their  name  was  retained.  They  were  called  ' '  baptisteries, ' ' 
that  is  to  say,  baths  ;  and  the  title  of  baptistery,  or  bath, 
survived  as  applied  to  the  churches  copied  from  them. 

The  name  and  plan  subsequently  became  distinctive  in 

*The  site  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  is  not  supposed  by  any  critic  to  be  that  of  the 
present  church  of  the  name. 

170 


The  Dome  Churches. 


171 


Italy  for  a  building  specially  designed  and  used  for 
baptisms,  which  were  always  by  immersion  in  the  early 
church.  Each  Italian  city  of  the  Middle  Ages  possessed 
one  of  these  buildings, \ which  we  must  carefully  distinguish 
from  the  baptistery  churches.  These  were  generally  aban- 


FIG.  107. — ST.  SOPHIA.     Constantinople.     Sixth  Century. 

doned   in   Western    Europe   after   the   beginning   of    the 
Romanesque  period. 

By  its  grand  dimensions  and  grand  interior  effect  the 
Church  of  St.  Sophia  at  Constantinople  surpasses  all  other 
buildings  of  its  time  and  most  of  those  which  have  followed 
it.  It  was  built  in  the  sixth  century  by  the  emperor 
Justinian.  The  height  of  the  main  dome  from  the  floor  is 
one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  feet,  its  diameter  is  one 
hundred  and  six  feet. 


172  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

It  is  probable  that  the  dome  was  more  commonly 
employed  in  earlier  oriental  buildings  than  the  actual 
remains  would  visibly  indicate,  and  this  view  has  been 
recently  much  advocated  by  experts  of  distinction.  Ac- 
cording to  this  view  the  Roman  use  of  the  dome  would 
go  back  to  Mesopotamian  originals,  which  continued  its 
use  in  their  earlier  home  down  to  and  after  the  Byzantine 
period.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Byzantine  architecture 
especially  affected  the  dome,  and  that  in  Western  Europe 
its  use  was  continued  by  that  influence.  As  visible  re- 
minder of  the  antique  originals  of  the  form  we  are  confined 
to  the  Pantheon  at  Rome,  which  must  rank  with  the 
Church  of  St.  Sophia  as  one  of^the  two  finest  dome 
constructions  of  the  entire  world.  The  merit  of  these 
buildings  as  compared  with  later  ones  which  have  used  the 
dome,  like  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  St.  Paul's  in  London, 
or  the  Cathedral  of  Florence,  is  that  the  interior  effect 
is  immeasurably  superior,  because  the  domed  apartment 
itself  constitutes  the  whole  interior.  To  place  a  dome 
above  a  portion  of  a  cathedral,  as  done  in  the  cases  just 
mentioned,  may  or  may  not  add  to  the  exterior  effect 
in  adequate  proportion  to  the  expense  and  effort  neces- 
sary in  the  cases  named,  but  the  dome  is  lost  for  an  interior 
which  is  not  distinctly  planned  for  it.  The  Pisa  Cathedral 
is  by  far  the  finest  instance  of  a  building  using  the  dome  in 
combination  with  the  oblong  cathedral  plan,  because  its 
modest  proportions  do  not  antagonize  the  main  plan. 

There  is  one  famous  church  in  Europe  already  men- 
tioned for  its  mosaic  decoration  which  deserves  more 
explicit  notice — St.  Mark's  at  Venice.  This  church  was 
not  begun  till  the  tenth  century  and  much  of  its  construc- 
tion and  adornment  was  accomplished  in  the  period  which 
we  usually  designate  as  Romanesque,  /'.  e. ,  the  period  after 


The  Dome  Churches.  173 

1000  A.  D.  But  this  terminology  of  periods  only  applies 
to  Western  Europe  and  Byzantine  art  long  outlived  this 
date  in  its  own  home.  Venice  was  so  closely  connected 
with  the  Byzantine  Empire  and  with  its  capital  city,  Con- 


FIG.  108.— BYZANTINE  CAPITALS  IN  ST.  MARK'S  AT  VENICE. 

stantinople,  that  St.  Mark's  is  the  best  surviving  picture  in 
the  whole  world  of  an  old  Byzantine  church.  The  form  of 
its  plan  is  that  of  a  short  basilica,  but  its  system  of  roofing 
is  one  of  domes,  so  that  it  may  be  considered  as  a  com- 
bination of  the  two  styles  of  church  so  far  described.  The 
famous  facade,  in  its  present  shape,  has  an  overlay  and 
crowning  of  Gothic  carving  done  in  the  -fifteenth  century, 
but  most  of  the  details  and  all  the  surface  casing  of  the 
interior  belong  to  the  ornamental  system  to  be  described  in 
our  next  chapter  and  furnish  its  most  remarkable  surviving 
illustration. 


CHAPTER  V. 

BYZANTINE    DETAILS*    AND    ORNAMENTAL    SYSTEM. 

IN  the  early  Middle  Ages  the  classic  buildings  were 
plundered  for  their  columns  and  capitals  as  long  as  any 
could  be  found.  It  is  pure  chance  or  the  inexhaustible 
supply  of  ruins  in  certain  instances  (like  the  city  of  Rome, 
where  very  little  building  moreover  was  done  in  the  later 
Middle  Ages)  that  has  left  us  any  ruins  at  all.  The  piece- 
meal adaptation  of  the  old  material  to  new  uses  is  found  in 
many  places.  Besides  these  direct  adaptations  of  classic 
forms  new  ones  were  designed  in  more  or  less  original 
departures  from  them.  Capitals  which  clearly  go  back  to 
Corinthian  or  Ionic  originals  are  found  as  late  as  the 
twelfth  century.  All  of  these  had  Byzantine  prototypes. 
There  is,  however,  a  distinctive  form  of  Byzantine  capital, 
the  cube  form,  expanding  from  the  neck  of  the  column^to 
an  intermediate  supporting  member  (which  took  the  place 
of  the  ancient  abacus),  which  has  many  beautiful  variants. 
The  surface  ornaments  of  these  capitals,  like  other  orna- 
mental Byzantine  details,  are  simplified  evolutions  from  the 
classic  scrolls,  spirals,  acanthus  leaves,  and  trefoils,  which 
they  frequently  also  repeat  in  very  obvious  derivative  forms. 
There  are  many  beautiful  Byzantine  capitals  in  Ravenna, 
in  Venice  (St.  Mark's),  and  in  Constantinople.  The  later 
Romanesque  churches  continued  many  of  their  forms  and 
details.  The  true  artistic  genius  of  the  Byzantine  art  is 
nowhere  so  immediately  obvious  as  in  its  architectural 

*  The  word  "  detail  "  is  applied  in  architectural  use  to  any  ornamental  pattern 
and  especially  to  architectural  carved  ornament. 


Byzantine  Details  and  Ornamental  System.       175 

ornament.  Its  study  is  moreover  important  as  leading 
to  the  comprehension  of  the  arabesque  (or  Moresque) 
patterns,  which  were  originally  based  upon  and  derived 
from  it. 

Aside  from  decorative  sculptured,  or  stuccoed,  details, 
the  Byzantine  churches  employed  a  system  of  marble 
paneling,  in  which  the  slabs,  as  sawn  into  thin  pieces, 
were  so  fitted  together  as  to  form  a  series  of  symmetrical 
patterns  from  the  veining  of  the  marble.  St.  Mark's  at 
Venice  and  the  St.  Sophia  Church  at  Constantinople  show 
the  finest  examples  of  this  work.  When  we  add  the  effect 
of  the  colored  mosaic  decorations  already  described,  it 
is  clear  that  Byzantine  architecture  was  a  glorious  and 
artistic  creation.  The  peculiar  failings  and  limitations  of 
the  figure  design,  when  compared  with  the  perfection  of 


FIG.  109. — ST.  SOPHIA.     Constantinople. 


FIG.  no. — BYZANTINE  WELL.    Venice. 


I76 


Byzantine  Details  and  Ornamental  System.        177 

Byzantine  decorative  art,  thus  appear  more  clearly  to  be 
due  to  general  historic  causes  and  are  certainly  not  due  to 
any  element  of  barbarism  or  natural  ignorance,  for  we 
know  in  many  ways  that  the  east  Roman  civilization  was 
of  a  highly  refined  and  elaborated  character. 

As  regards  Western  Europe  in  general  it  will  be  under- 
stood that  the  models  furnished  by  Ravenna  and  by 
Venice  are  by  no  means  types  of  an  equal  perfection  else- 
where. These  cities  were  distinctly  connected  with  Byzan- 
tine civilization,  one  by  government  and  the  other  by 
commerce.  The  meaner  and  more  carelessly  built  exist- 
ing ancient  churches  of  Rome  would  be  better  examples  of 
what  was  done  habitually  in  most  parts  of  western  Christen- 
dom between  the  fifth  and  eleventh  centuries. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MOHAMMEDAN    ART. 

As  far  as  Europe  was  concerned  before  the  fifteenth 
century,  when  the  Turkish  invasion  overran  its  eastern 
countries,  Mohammedan  art  was  confined  to  Spain  and 
Sicily.  The  Moors  were,  however,  not  expelled  from 
Granada  till  1492  and  meantime  their  art  had  considerably 
influenced  the  Spanish  Gothic. 

The  crusaders  were  brought  in  contact  with  the  art  of 
Syria  and  Egypt  when  the  Arabs  and  Turks  were  masters 
of  these  countries  and  by  way  of  Sicily  also  the  Arab  art 
had  influence  on  Southern  Italy.  Some  slight  mention  of 
it  is  a  proper  appendix  to  any  history  of  Byzantine  art. 

It  was  in  the  seventh  century  that  the  Arabian  world, 
under  the  influence  of  the  teachings  of  Mohammed,  began 
its  career  of  foreign  conquest.  Of  Arab  art  before  this 
time  we  know  at  present  nothing.  It  was  in  the  east 
Roman  provinces  of  Syria,  Egypt,  and  North  Africa,  then 
conquered,  that  the  earliest  Mohammedan  art  developed 
from  the  Byzantine.  The  mosques  were  frequently  Chris- 
tian churches  transformed  to  this  use  or  were  sometimes 
copied  from  them.  The  Mosque  of  Omar  at  Jerusalem  is 
reputed  to  be  of  the  former  class.  The  El  Aksa  Mosque 
at  Jerusalem  is  known  to  be  of  the  latter. 

In  later  days  the  Turks,  who  became  the  military  force 
of  the  Arabs  and  then  converts  to  their  Arab  faith,  and 
subsequently  became  the  political  masters  of  their  former 
lords,  not  only  converted  the  St.  Sophia  Church  to  their 

178 


FIG.  in. — CAPITALS  AND  ARABESQUES  FROM  THE  ALHAMBRA. 


179 


i8o 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


own  worship  but  also  built  the  later  mosques  of  Constanti- 
nople on  modifications  of  its  plan.  It  was  especially  the  By- 
zantine art  of  Egypt  which  gave  the  first  impulse  to  the  Arab. 
In  Cairo,  where  we  find,  aside  from  Damascus  and  Jerusa- 
lem, the  most  accessible  illustrations  of  the  early  Moham- 
medan mosques,  an  open  court  surrounded  by  arcades  was 
the  plan  first  generally  adopted.  Dome  buildings  surmount- 
ing a  cruciform  plan  were  at  a  later  day  the  ruling  type. 
In  these  constructions  and  in  their  ornament  the  fanciful 


FIG.  ii2.— MOSQUE  EL  AKSA.    Jerusalem. 

and  imaginative  nature  of  Arab  art  wandered  widely  from 
Byzantine  types  ;  but  in  the  elements  of  construction  and 
in  the  elements  of  ornament  the  original  forms  are  obvious. 
Columns  and  capitals  were  often  plundered  from  Byzantine 
buildings  and  rarely  are  devoid  of  Byzantine  reminiscence. 


Mohammedan  Art. 


181 


The  well-known  law  of  Mohammed  forbidding  imitations  of 
human  or  animal  form  in  art  found  no  obvious  violations 
in  the  scrolls  and  trefoils  of  the  east  Roman  decorative 
system.  These  were  the  originals  of  most  of  the  patterns 
known  as  the  "arabesque."  A  distinctive  form  of  orna- 
ment is,  however,  the  complicated  and  intricate  linear 
system  which  has  such  beautiful  examples  in  the  wood- 
carvings  of  latticed 
windows  and  on  sur- 
face panels.  It  is  said 
that  all  the  decorative 
works  of  the  Arabs 
in  Egypt  were  mainly 
executed  by  the  Copts, 
the  native  Christian 
inhabitants  of  the 
country,  and  it  has 
been  suggested  that 
the  initiative  here  was 
also  thus  derived. 


FIG.  113. — MOHAMMEDAN    DOME  AND  DOME 
OF  THE  ROCK.   Jerusalem. 


There  is  no  doubt  that  Byzantine  Egypt  was  the  first 
important  art  school  of  the  Arabs. 

The  minaret,  or  tower,  from  which  the  worshiper  was 
summoned  to  his  prayers,  was  also  an  original  architec- 
tural form. 

By  way  of  North  Africa  and  the  straits  of  Gibraltar  the 
Arabs  invaded  Spain  at  the  opening  of  the  eighth  century, 
and  for  a  time  became  masters  of  nearly  the  entire  country. 
Their  first  onset  carried  them  as  far  as  Southern  France. 
The  Moors  of  North  Africa  were  their  converts  and 
attendants  and  there  is  little  distinction  to  be  drawn  in 
Spain  between  them.  As  ultimately  confined  to  the  prov- 
ince of  Granada  the  Arab  culture  has  left  its  most  famous 


182 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


monument  in  the  Palace  of  the  Alhambra  (thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries).  The  great  Mosque  of  Cordova,  the 
Alcazar  of  Seville,  and  the  great  tower  (minaret),  known 
as  the  Giralda,  in  Seville,  are  otherwise  the  most  quoted 
survivals  of  their  Spanish  architecture. 

Aside  from  their  new  developments  of  surface  ornament 
the  originality  of  the  Arab  architecture  shows  itself  in  the 
employment  of  the  pointed  and  of  the  ' '  horseshoe ' '  arch. 
These  forms  were  most  consonant  with  the  light  and  airy 
nature  of  their  constructions,  which  were  frequently  of  a 
somewhat  flimsy  character.  It  is  probable  that  the  sug- 
gestion for  the  use  of 
the  pointed  arch 
passed  into  the  later 
Gothic  style  through 
the  contact  of  the 
crusaders  with  the 
Saracenic  buildings  of 
the  East  and  through 
the  amalgamation  of 
the  Arab  and  Chris- 
tian art,  which  was 
especially  apparent  in 
Sicily.  The  Arabs 
had  conquered-  Sicily 
in  the  ninth  century 
but  were  displaced  by 
the  Normans  as  a 
political  power  in  the 
eleventh  century.  As  late  as  the  thirteenth  century,  when 
Sicily  became  for  a  time  a  territory  of  the  Hohenstaufen 
German  emperors,  the  Saracenic  culture  was  favored  here 
by  the  liberality  ot  the  emperor  Frederic  II.  The  Cathe- 


FIG.  114.— ARCADES  IN  THE  MOSQUE  OF 
AMRU.     Cairo. 


Mohammedan  Art. 


183 


dral  of  Palermo  is  a  famous  survival  of  the  amalgamated 
style  resulting  from  this  contact. 

In  general  the  influence  of  the  Arabs  in  Europe  was 
most  apparent  in  the  matter  of  tiles  and  enameled  clay,  in 
the  manufacture  of  textiles,  and  in  the  diffusion  of  the 
patterns  which  they  habitually  used  in  them.  The  word 
"Majolica"  still  bears  witness  to  the  importation  into 
Italy  of  the  arts  of  enameling  or  glazing  pottery  from  the 
island  of  Majorca  during  its  Arab  period.  The  common 
glazed  wares  of  Spain  still  show  universally  the  Moresque 
influence,  which  has  thus  penetrated  in  modern  times  even 
to  the  similar  manu- 
factures of  Mexico  and 
of  South  America. 
The  earliest  medieval 
manufactures  of  silks 
and  velvets  in  Europe 
were  at  Lucca  in  Italy, 
where  they  were  intro- 
duced from  Sicily  and 
from  other  oriental 
sources.  Many  of  our 
modern  textile  patterns 
still  bear  witness  to 
this  history  of  the  art. 
The  importations  o  f 
the  Venetians  into 
Europe  of  oriental 
stuffs  had  a  no  less 
important  influence. 

The  building  which  bears  witness  in  our  time  to  the 
beauty  of  Arab  tile  decoration  is  the  Mosque  of  Omar,  at 
Jerusalem,  whose  exterior  is  still  entirely  covered  with  en- 


FIG.  115. — HALL  OF  JUSTICE  AND  COURT  OF 
THE  LIONS.    Alhambra. 


184 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


ameled  tiles  in  blue  and  green  ornament.  This  art  was  ob- 
tained partly  in  Byzan- 
tine Egypt  and  partly 
in  Persia.  The  Mesopo- 
tamian  countries  were 
also  conquered  by  the 
Mohammedans  in  the 
seventh  century.  In 
these  Persian  terri- 
tories a  bastard  classic 
art  had  prevailed  since 
the  fourth  century 
B.  C.  This  had  amal- 
gamated in  later  centu- 
ries with  the  Byzan- 
tine, each  reacting  on 
the  other.  The  tech- 
nical perfection  of  tile 
decoration  was  how- 
ever a  native  Mesopo- 
tamian  art,  since  the 
days  of  the  Chaldeans,  and  has  especially  spread  from  this 
quarter,  through  Arab  transmission,  to  the  modern  world. 


FIG.  116. — ARCADE  IN  THE  ALCAZAR. 
Seville. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    ROMANESQUE    PERIOD. 

THE  main  periods  of  the  art  of  the  Middle  Ages  are 
three  in  number  and  these  periods  are  especially  apparent 
in  architecture.  They  are  consequently  named  in  general 
according  to  the  architectural  divisions.  The  art  of  archi- 
tecture will  be  always  found  to  be  the  dominant  one  in 
history  and  as  far  as  classifications  and  systematic  concep- 
tions are  concerned  it  is  always  necessary  to  move  from  it. 
According  to  this  system  the  Gothic  period  is  the  latest  of 
the  Middle  Ages  and  its  centuries  are  in  round  numbers 
those  between  1 200  and  1 500  A.  D.  The  period  intervening 
between  the  Byzantine  or  early  Christian  and  the  Gothic 
will  therefore  be  the  two  centuries  from  1000  to  1200  A.  D. 

As  regards  the  designation  of  the  first  period  it  will 
be  understood  that  Byzantine  style  long  outlasted  the 
eleventh  century  in  Eastern  Europe.  It  was  in  the  first 
place  coexistent  with  the  empire  from  which  it  derives 
its  name,  which  lasted  till  1453.  It  was  subsequently 
practiced  by  the  Christians  of  the  East  under  Turkish  rule, 
and  in  Russian  art  it  was  the  main  factor  until  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Byzantine  art  was  not  universal  in  West- 
ern Europe  during  the  early  Middle  Age,  although  it  was 
universally  influential  before  the  eleventh  century,  and  no 
high  technical  perfection  was  reached  without  it.  The 
matter  of  fact  of  history  on  this  point  has  been  stated  on 
page  149.  There  were,  aside  from  Byzantine  influences, 
those  which  moved  directly  from  the  old  western  Roman 

185 


FIG.  Ft?.— CATHEDRAL  OF  SPEYER. 


•  86 


The  Romanesque  Period.  187 

Christian  art  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  and  there 
were  the  various  semi-barbaric  modifications  of  both.  The 
most  exact  general  title  for  the  period  between  the  fifth 
and  eleventh  centuries  in  Western  Europe  (500—1000 
A.  D. )  would  be  ' '  Early  Christian  and  Byzantine. ' ' 

The  word  Romanesque  will  be  explained  when  we  take 
up  the  architecture  of  the  time.  Meantime  we  will  accept 
it  and  after  making  the  necessary  historic  summary  we  will 
deal  with  Romanesque  art  as  a  whole,  seeking  first  in  the 
figure  designs  the  connection  and  contrast  with  the  earlier 
time. 

It  is  obvious  that  in  actual  history  there  are  no  divisions 
of  periods — there  is  only  a  continuous  chain  of  events 
which  is  reflected  in  the  works  of  man.  After  given 
intervals  of  more  or  less  duration  we  can  distinguish 
very  obvious  revolutions  and  changes  which  lead  us  to 
coin  words  to  characterize  them,  and  we  are  then  obliged 
to  notice  in  general  the  more  obvious  signs  of  the  ap- 
proaching change  which  have  been  first  observed  in  its 
entire  later  result.  It  is  according  to  these  signs  of  an 
approaching  change  that  the  opening  date  o{  an  art  period 
is  fixed.  All  divisions  of  periods  are  consequently  arbitrary 
in  one  sense  and  the  transitions  and  connecting  links  which 
are  the  most  interesting  features  of  every  evolution  are 
naturally  the  points  most  to  be  emphasized  at  the  begin- 
ning of  what  we  call,  for  our  own  purposes  of  convenience, 
a  new  period. 

Stated  broadly,  the  essential  character  of  the  Roman- 
esque period  is  its  effort'  to  be  itself,  its  effort  to  study 
nature  independent  of  traditional  forms  in  design,  its 
effort  to  solve  new  architectural  problems  and  meet  new 
conditions  of  life  in  an  independent  and  original  way.  t 

It  is  always  in  political  and  first  of  all  in   social   life 


The  Romanesque  Period. 


189 


that  a  revolution  in  art  is  effected.  The  forms  of  art 
are  the  expression  and  result  of  these  conditions. 

In  general  history  we  seize  upon  the  career  of  Charle- 
magne and    on   the   history  of   his    time  (ninth  century ; 
he  was  crowned  emperor  at  Rome  in  the  year  800)   as 
leading    up   to  the  changes    which  we  distinguish   in  the 
eleventh  century.      The  Prankish   Germanic  state,  which 
was    founded    by   the 
barbaric  war  chieftain 
Clovis   in   Northern 
France  and    Southern 
Belgium*   after  481 
A.  D.,   had  gradually 
in    some     cases,     and 
rapidly  in  others,  ab- 
sorbed all  the  territo- 
ries and  tribes  covered 
by  the  history  of  the 
German    invasions,  f 
excepting    England, 
Spain,    and    South 
Italy,    when    Charle- 
magne   became     its 
monarch.      It  is  then, 
broadly  speaking,  the 

whole  of  Central  Europe  which  was  in  question  ;  bordered 
by  Spain  on  the  one  side  and  by  the  Elbe  and  the  frontiers 
of  Bohemia  and  Hungary  on  the  other.  France,  Germany, 
and  Italy  were  thus  the  countries  of  his  empire,  which  even 
reached  to  the  Ebro  in  Spain. 

At  this  time  most  of  the  rest  of  Spain  was  Arabian, 

*  The  separation  of  the  boundaries  of  those  modern  states  naturally  did  not 
then  exist, 
f  Reference  to  pp.  143-148  is  here  suggested. 


190  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

and  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  England  were  so  overrun  by 
Danish  barbarism  that  they  are  hardly  to  be  considered  as 
within  the  pale  of  civilization.  The  territories  of  Charle- 
magne therefore  included  all  that  were  distinctly  those 
of  west  European  civilization. 

Meantime  dissensions  between  the  bishop  of  Rome  (the 
pope)  and  his  political  rulers,  the  Byzantine  emperors,* 
combined  with  the  inability  of  these  rulers  to  protect 
him  from  the  incursions  of  the  barbaric  German  Lom- 
bards who  were  settled  in  Italy,  led  to  an  alliance  between 
the  Prankish  state  and  the  pope.  The  Roman  Empire 
of  the  West  was  thus  revived.  Charlemagne  was  crowned 
Emperor  of  the  West  by  Pope  Leo  III. 

The  theory  of  this  proceeding  was  that  the  Roman 
imperial  power  of  the  West  had  been  only  in  abeyance, 
and  this  theory  was  consistent  with  the  fact  that  many 
of  the  German  chieftains  of  the  time  of  the  invasions  had 
nominally  or  actually  professed  themselves  subjects  either 
of  the  western  or  eastern  emperor.  The  difference  lay  in 
the  changed  conditions  of  the  actual  civilization  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  when  power  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
feudal  chieftains,  the  descendants  of  the  minor  German 
warriors  and  chiefs,  whose  great  territories  and  consequent 
practical  independence  of  any  superior  monarchical  or 
imperial  power  made  a  revival  of  the  old  Roman  Empire 
impossible.  The  theory  was  notwithstanding  put  into 
practice  as  far  as  circumstances  and  events  allowed.  For 
the  lifetime  of  Charlemagne  it  was  fairly  realized  in  the 
territories  named. 

A  triple  territorial  division  of  his  empire  among  his 
grandsons  set  the  imperial  theory  adrift  in  conflict  with 
actualities  ;  but  it  was  again  revived  by  the  German  kings 

*Rome  had  belonged  to  the  exarchate  of  Ravenna  (page  165). 


FIG.  120.— SOUTH  AISLE.     Peterborough, 


I92 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


of  the  Saxon  dynasty  in  the  tenth  century.  These  now  be- 
came as  ' '  Emperors  of  the  West ' '  the  greatest  potentates 
of  Christendom.  Western  France  was  left  to  struggle  with 
Northman  (Norman)  invasions  ;  but  Eastern  and  Southern 
France  were  portions  of  this  empire.  Italy  belonged  to  it  ; 
Denmark,  Poland,  Bohemia,  and  Hungary  yielded  to 
its  sway. 

All  these  political  facts  rest  on  a  greater  fact,  which 
is  that  the  civilization  of  Germany  had  risen  to  a  point 
where  it  could  and  did  assert  itself ;  to  a  point  where  it 
was  the  vital  and  the  active  center  of  European  history. 
The  tenth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth  centuries  were  thus  the 
great  days  of  the  Germanic  emperors  of  the  Saxon,  Fran- 

conian,  and  Ho  hen - 
staufen  dynasties — 
powerful  kings  of  Ger- 
many at  least,  em- 
perors of  western 
Christendom  in  title, 
actually  rulers  of  Italy, 
with  German  bounda- 
ries which  then  in- 
cluded the  Tyrol  and 
Switzerland,  modern 
Holland,  and  Belgium, 
and  as  much  of  France 
as  lay  east  of  the 
Rhone  or  of  the  con- 
tinuation of  its  main 
line  to  the  north. 

It    was    in     these 
countries    that    the 
great  Romanesque  cathedrals  were  built  as  results  of  this 


FIG.  i2i.— St.  MICHAEL'S.     Hildesheim. 


The  Romanesque  Period. 


193 


prosperity  and  power,  and  it  is  especially  the  cathedrals  of 
Southern  France,  and  of  the  Rhine  at  Speyer,  Worms,  and 
Mainz  which  perpetuate  the  memory  of  these  centuries. 
Otherwise  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Bamberg  (Bava- 
ria) and  the  churches 
of  Hildesheim  are 
among  the  most  im- 
portant Romanesque 
monuments  of  Ger- 
many. In  Italy  the 
Cathedral  of  Pisa  is 
the  greatest  of  its  age. 

In  the  eleventh 
century  the  Normans 
had  become  the  great- 
est power  in  Northern 
France  and  their 
churches  at  Bayeux 
and  Caen  are  con- 
sequently among  the 
most  important. 

From  the  Normans  and  through  their  conquest  of  Eng- 
land at  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century  the  Romanesque 
style  spread  to  England,  where  it  is  frequently,  though 
erroneously,  named  the  ''Norman"  style.  It  appears 
at  Ely,  Norwich,  Peterborough,  Hereford,  and  Durham, 
and  in  portions  of  the  Cathedrals  of  Winchester  and  Can- 
terbury, and  there  are  many  English  churches  or  cathe- 
drals which  retain  ' '  Norman  ' '  features  in  connection  with 
later  reconstructions. 

These  various  cathedrals  were  generally  decorated  with 
frescoes  of  which  the  remaining  fragments  are  so  scanty 


FIG.  122. — HEREFORD  CATHEDRAL. 


194  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


that  they  hardly  offer  even  the  material  for  a  chronicle. 
Those  surviving  in  St.  Michael's  at  Hildesheim  (twelfth 
century)  are,  however,  of  marvelous  power  and  artistic 
quality.  Other  fine  wall  paintings  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Savin  in  Poitou  and  in  the  Church  of 
Schwarz-Rheindorf  near  Cologne. 

In  Romanesque  sculpture  Germany  generally  offers  the 
most  important  monuments.  The  earliest  are  the  bronze 
doors  of  the  Hildesheim  Cathedral.  Its  bronze  font  and 
chandelier  are  also  famous  relics.  The  cathedral  sculp- 
tures of  Freiberg  (Saxony)  and  of  Wechselburg  are  the 
finest  works  of  Romanesque  sculpture. 

Figs.  130,  131,  and  132  are  examples  of  the  crude  but 
honest  efforts  of  the  early  Romanesque  period  in  figure 
design.  Fig.  131  illustrates  dependence  on  Byzantine  art 
(compare  the  mosaics). 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

ROMANESQUE     ARCHITECTURE. 

THE  word  "Romanesque"  does  not,  as  sometimes 
supposed,  refer  to  a  debased  and  degraded  Roman  style 
adopted  by  the  Middle  Ages,  but  rather  specifies  the  two 
traits  of  Roman  architecture  which  were  reemployed  at 
this  time,  viz.,  the  pier  and  the  vaulting  arch.  All  the 
great  Romanesque  cathedrals  of  North  Continental  Europe 
use  this  construction  and  are  distinguished  by  it  from  the 
earlier  basilicas  with  timber  roofs  and  with  columns  sup- 
porting the  arches  of  the  nave. 

Timber  ceilings  for  minor  churches  were  by  no  means 
abandoned  at  any  time.  In  Italy  they  continued  the  rule 
even  for  many  of  the  important  cathedrals,  like  that  of 
Pisa.  The  Romanesque  naves  were  rarely  vaulted  in  Eng- 
land, although  this  use  was  general  in  the  aisles.  Finally 
the  earlier  churches  of  the  Romanesque  period  in  Northern 
Europe  adhered  more  or  less  to  basilica  methods  of  con- 
struction. Notwithstanding  these  exceptions,  it  is  the 
pier  and  the  vaulting  which  distinguish  this  period  of 
cathedral  building  as  a  whole  and  it  is  this  use  which  has 
suggested  the  word  "Romanesque."  It  may  be  added 
that  the  evolution  of  the  Gothic  style  from  the  Roman- 
esque was  absolutely  dependent  on  a  peculiar  development 
of  the  vaulting.  Hence,  above  all,  the  necessity  for  in- 
sisting on  it  and  understanding  it,  as  a  necessary  prelim- 
inary to  the  study  of  this  later  style. 

As  far  as  our  illustrations  go,  the  character  of  a  Roman- 
es 


FIG.  123. -MAINZ  CATHEDRAL. 


T96 


Romanesque  Architecture. 


197 


esque  vaulting  is  most  distinctly  illustrated  by  the  view  of 
one  of  the  aisles  of  Peterborough  (Fig.  120).  The  vault- 
ings of  the  nave  are  also  shown  by  the  views  of  the  Speyer 
and  Mainz  Cathedrals  (Figs.  117,  119).  The  contrast 
with  a  timber  ceiling  is  best  shown  by  the  views  of  St. 
Michael's  at  Hildesheim  and  of  San  Apollinare  Nuovo 
(Figs.  121,  102).  The  actual  construction  of  the  timber 
framework  supporting  the  roof  when  not  "ceiled  in"  is 


FIG.  124.— WORMS  CATHEDRAL. 

shown  by  the  Church  of  the  Manger  (Fig.  86)  and  by  San 
Apollinare  in  Classe  (Fig.  103). 

As  regards  the  distinction  between  a  pier  and  a  column 
it  is  best  illustrated  in  a  church  which  exhibits  both. 
Compare  the  view  of  St.  Michael's  at  Hildesheim,  where 
the  square  pier  and  the  round  column  are  easily  con- 
trasted (Fig.  121,  or  compare  103,  120).  The  shape  is 
not,  however,  the  determining  point,  for  round  piers  are 
found  in  the  English  Romanesque.  This  appears  in  the 


198 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


view  of  Hereford  Cathedral  (Fig.  122).  Properly  speak- 
ing, the  pier  is  an  aggregation  of  masonry  without  refer- 
ence to  shape,  as  visible  also  in  this  last  case.  The  column 
as  distinguished  from  the  pier  is  a  monolith  in  the  diameter 
and  frequently  also  in  the  perpendicular.  In  the  classic 
columns  the  division  into  "drums"  or  sections  was  fre- 
quently made  necessary  by  the  great  perpendicular  dimen- 
sions. In  the  columns  of  medieval  churches,  which  were 
almost  invariably  taken  from  Roman  ruins,  as  long  as  the 
supply  lasted,  it  appears  to  have  been  almost  invariably 
the  entirely  monolithic  columns  which  were  chosen.  As 


FIG.  125.  — SPEYER  CATHEDRAL. 


far  as  the  Middle  Ages  are  concerned,  we  may  therefore 
boldly  define  the  column  as  a  round  support  which  was 
monolithic  both  in  the  diameter  and  the  perpendicular, 


Romanesque  Architecture. 


199 


and  the  pier  as  a  support  (sometimes  round)  which  was 
built  up  of  masonry. 

If  we  turn  now  to  the  Roman  ruins  (Figs.  51,  52)  we 
shall  see  that  the  vaulting  arches  were  invariably  sup- 
ported by  such  masonry  piers.  This  construction  is,  in 
fact,  always  necessary  when  a  vaulting  is  employed,  for  a 
column  is  too  slender  a  support  for  the  superincumbent 
mass.  We  should 
therefore  conclude  that 
the  piers  of  the  Roman- 
esque cathedrals  were 
made  necessary  by 
their  vaulted  ceilings 
and  that  philosophi- 
cally we  ought  to  begin 
our  explanations  with 
these.  It  should  be 
added,  however,  that 
practically  the  supply 
of  ancient  columns  had 
been  mainly  exhausted 
in  the  first  five  centu- 
ries of  Christian  build- 
ing, and  that  a  resort 
to  masonry  piers  would 
have  been  natural  in  consequence,  to  a  period  unac- 
customed to  the  quarrying  of  columns.  Regarding  the 
enormous  pressure  of  the  stone  vaultings  and  the  great 
strength  required  to  resist  it,  we  have  an  especially  inter- 
esting illustration  in  a  Scottish  ruin  of  the  Gothic  time 
which  shows  the  section  of  a  vaulted  building  (Fig.  137). 

As  regards  the  general  reasons  for  the  introduction  of  a 
vaulting  system  in  cathedrals  we  may  also  find  the  most 


FIG.  126. — PORTAL.     Haughmond  Abbey. 


200 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


obvious  illustrations  in  the  Gothic  ;  for  when  the  Gothic 
vaultings  (Figs.  138,  139,  140)  are  compared  with  the 
timber  ceilings  (Figs.  87,  102)  there  is  not  the  slightest 
difficulty  in  appreciating  their  artistic  superiority  for  an 
interior  effect.  The  same  point  holds  of  the  Romanesque 
cathedral  interiors  like  Figs.  117,  119,  although  the  con- 
trast may  be  slightly  less  obvious.  A  church  with  a 
vaulted  ceiling  is  obviously  of  one  solid  material  through- 
out— walls,  roof,  and  columns  are  all  of  stone.  There  is 
not  the  sense  of  incongruity,  as  regards  durability  and 
material,  between  two  parts  of  the  buildings.  Both  are 
harmonized  into  one  mass  not  only  as  regards  material  but 


FIG.  127. — PISA  CATHEDRAL,  BELL  TOWER,  AND  BAPTISTERY. 

also  as  regards  lines  and  surfaces.  For  the  lines  and 
surfaces  of  the  arch  unite  insensibly  with  those  of  the 
wall  and  the  pier.  The  extra  height  obtained  by  the  arch 


Romanesque  Architecture. 


20 1 


as  against  a  flat  ceiling  is  also  a  point  to  be  considered.  A 
most  important  consideration  is  that  relating  to  possible 
conflagrations  and  the  resulting  disaster  to  a  timber-roofed 
building.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  occurrence  of  such 


FIG.  128.— PISA  CATHEDRAL. 

destructions  by  fire  had  much  to  do  with  the  introduction 
of  the  vaultings. 

In  the  general  prosperity  and  power  of  the  German 
Empire  we  have  already  found  the  material  causes  of  a  new 
building  and  artistic  activity.  The  rivalry  of  great  towns, 
of  powerful  bishops,  and  of  various  monastic  orders,  the 
wish  of  the  emperors  to  leave  monuments  of  their  great- 
ness to  future  ages — all  conspired  to  create  the  Roman- 
esque style.  The  exteriors  (Figs.  123,  124,  125),  when 
compared  with  those  of  the  old  basilicas,  have  a  manifestly 


202 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


monumental  purpose.  The  spirit  of  pride  and  power,  of 
ambition  and  successful  effort,  is  apparent  in  them.  The 
vigorous  Germanic  blood  had  been  poured  into  the  veins 
of  the  old  Roman  Christian  civilization  of  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  and  this  was  the  result. 

Out  of  the  simple  bell  tower  of  the  ancient  basilica  had 
grown  the  system  of  exterior  towers  shown  by  the  views  of 


FIG.  129. — ST.  MICHAEL'S.     Lucca. 

the  Speyer  and  Mainz  Cathedrals.  Over  the  junction  of 
the  nave  and  transept  was  generally  raised  a  dome  covered 
by  a  pointed  roof  (Fig.  123).  In  the  Pisa  Cathedral  the 
rounded  dome  construction  is,  however,  also  apparent  on 
the  exterior  (Fig.  127). 

The   surfaces   of   the   exterior   walls   were   broken  and 
spaced  by  pilasters.     Galleries  of  columns  and  arches  were 


Romanesque  Architecture. 


203 


constructed  on  the  towers  and  occasionally  on  the  fa9ades 
or  at  other  proper  points  of  the  upper  walls  (Figs.  123, 
124,  125).  The  lines  of  the  cornices  were  decorated  with 
small  round  arches.  The  portals,  especially  of  the  later 
Romanesque,  were  richly  ornamented  with  carving  and 
recessed  with  columns  and  concentric  arches,  diminishing 
in  size  to  the  doorway  (Fig.  126). 

It  is  necessary,  after  dwelling  on  these  various  points,  to 
consider  the  ground  plans  of  the  Romanesque  cathedrals. 
These  differed  from  the  basilica  plan  by  the  introduction  of 
the  transept  or  cross 
form.*  This  added  to 
the  dimensions  and 
the  picturesque  effects 
of  both  interior  and 
exterior.  The  choirs 
were  considerably 
enlarged  (Fig.  123), 
a  development  from 
the  apse  of  the  basilica. 
As  regards  the  di- 
vision of  nave  and 
aisles  and  the  system 
of  lower  aisles,  border- 
ing the  nave  with  its 
higher  walls  and  upper 
windows,  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  basilica 
was  retained.  As  re- 
gards plan  and  system 


FIG.  130.— IVORY  CARVED  BOOK  COVER. 
THE  DEPOSITION.      Hildesheim. 


Eleventh  Century. 

these  cathedrals  were  therefore  a  direct  evolution  from  the 
earlier  buildings,  with  increased  grandeur,  size,  picturesque 

*  It  appears  occasionally  in  a  rudimentary  way  in  the  early  Christian  basilicas. 


204  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

effect,  and  a  more  permanent  and  durable  construction. 
The  round  arch  was  employed  as  in  the  preceding-  period. 
The  exterior  walls  were  massive  and  the  Romanesque  is  a 
fine  illustration  of  the  value,  for  artistic  effect,  of  large 
surfaces  of  masonry.  Its  recent  employment  in  modern 
revival  has  been  mainly  promoted  by  an  artistic  taste 
which  has  felt  the  value  of  its  undecorated  masonry  sur- 
faces and  simple  masonry  construction. 

Having  treated  the  Romanesque  cathedral  as  a  finished 
type,  we  may  now  consider  the  steps  of  transition  by 
which  it  was  reached.  As  regards  the  vaultings  they  were 
sometimes  at  first  only  attempted  in  the  side  aisles.  We 
have  seen  that  the  English  "Norman"  cathedrals  often 
stopped  at  this  point.  The  English  style  being  one  of 
foreign  introduction,  it  appears  that  the  traditional  national 
habit  of  using  the  timbered  ceiling  asserted  itself  here, 
and  it  may  be  that  masons  were  not  numerous  in  Eng- 
land who  were  sufficiently  dexterous  to  undertake  the 
vaulting  of  a  nave.  The  general  backwardness  of  English 
culture  at  this  date  as  compared  with  that  of  Continental 
Europe  is  undoubtedly  in  one  way  or  another  the  explana- 
tion. It  should  be  added  that  the  important  building 
activity  of  English  cathedrals  as  compared  with  portions  of 
the  Continent  does  not  begin  until  the  time  of  the  Gothic. 

Aside  from  the  tentative  introduction  of  vaulted  aisles  as 
forerunner  of  the  developed  Romanesque,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  churches  of  Southern  France  seem  to  have  been 
foremost  in  the  use  of  vaultings  and  it  would  appear  that 
there  was  a  traditional  survival  here  of  the  old  Roman 
practice.  There  are  many  instances  in  this  part  of  Europe 
of  such  survivals  of  Roman  tradition. 

As  regards  the  piers,  many  early  churches  show  an 
alternating  arrangement  in  which  piers  and  columns  both 


Romanesque  Architecture. 


205 


appear,  another  obvious  transition  to  the  later  system 
(Fig.  121).  Many  early  Romanesque  churches  continued 
the  basilica  plan  without  important  modifications  (Figs. 
121,  128).  This  was  especially  the  case  in  Italy  and  for 
two  reasons.  The  basilica 
traditions  were  stronger  there 
and  the  supply  of  columns 
from  ancient  buildings  lasted 
longer. 

In  Lombardy  (North  Italy) 
the  northern  system  of  vault- 
ings appears  at  an  early  date, 
but  in  Tuscany  (south  of  the 
Apennines)  the  Italian  Roman- 
esque, in  the  larger  number  of 
cases,  exhibits  an  intermediate 
stage  of  development  as  com- 
pared with  the  buildings  of  the 
North.  It  constantly  shows 
Romanesque  ornament  and  de- 
tails, without  the  vaultings  and 
without  the  pier.  The  Pisa 
Cathedral  is  the  finest  instance 
of  this  intermediate  system. 
Only  the  side  aisles  of  this 
cathedral  are  vaulted.  Its 
exterior  ornament  is,  however, 
more  elaborate  and  more  care- 
fully planned  than  that  of  any  northern  building  (Fig. 
127). 

The  system  of  variegated  masonry  in  horizontal  stripes 
is  peculiar  to  Italy  as  far  as  the  Romanesque  is  concerned. 
These  stripes  are  found  in  oriental  Byzantine,  and  in 


FIG.  131.— LIMOGES  EMANUEL. 

THE  VIRGIN  MARY. 

Twelfth  Century. 


2O6 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


Saracenic  buildings,  and  are  thence  derived.  St.  Michael's 
at  Lucca  and  many  other  churches  of  Tuscany  are  variants 
of  the  Pisa  Cathedral. 

The  ornamental  carvings  and  the  capitals  of  Roman- 
esque art  are  developments  from  the  Byzantine.  Where 
columns  were  employed  the  cube  capital  is  common  (Fig. 

121).*  For  the  pier 
capitals  new  forms  were 
invented  or  evolved. 
The  introduction  of 
grotesque  forms  of 
animals  or  men  in  these 
ornaments  is  peculiar  to 
this  period,  as  distinct 
from  the  one  which  pre- 
ceded.  Tnese  gro- 
tesques represent  the 
w-  i  fantastic  and  original 
spirit  of  the  Germanic 
North  as  contrasted 
with  the  more  sedate 
Byzantine  depend- 
ence on  earlier  classic 
designs. 

In  the  rare  examples  of  northern  Romanesque  wall 
painting  which  have  survived,  there  is  visible  a  finished 
and  powerful  style  which  bespeaks  long  previous  practice 
and  an  interesting  survival  of  classic  art.  It  is  far  other- 
wise in  the  sculpture,  where  the  early  efforts  are  clumsy 
and  rude,  though  interesting  for  the  originality  of  the 
motives  and  the  earnest  effort  of  the  workman  (Figs.  130, 


FIG.  132. — IVORY  CARVED  BOOK  COVER. 

THE  DEPOSITION  AND  ENTOMBMENT. 

Thirteenth  Century.    Ravenna. 


*The  capitals  of  the  Pisa  Cathedral  are  antique.     The  columns  and  capitals 
were  brought  from  Sicily. 


Romanesque  Architecture.  207 

132).  The  conclusion  is  obvious  that  the  efforts  in  sculp- 
ture were  less  assisted  by  tradition,  and  the  dearth  of 
Byzantine  art  in  this  line  has  been  explained. 

In  enamels  and  metal  work  there  are  many  survivals 
of  Byzantine  influences  (Fig.  131).  The  rudest  art  of  tr^e 
period,  as  regards  sculpture  and  painting,  survived  latest 
in  Central  and  Northern  Italy,  where  we  find  incredibly 
barbaric  design  even  in  the  thirteenth  century.  The  style 
represented  by  Fig.  132  was  general  at  this  time  in  the 
territory  specified  and  was  not  improved  upon  until  the 
advent  of  Niccolo  of  Pisa.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find 
between  the  eleventh  and  thirteenth  centuries,  inclusive,  in 
Southern  Italy,  remarkable  examples  of  progress  in  design 
of  which  a  more  extended  account  will  be  given  later. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    GOTHIC    PERIOD. 

IN  the  thirteenth  century  a  long-standing  contention  be- 
tween the  popes  and  the  Germanic  emperors  ended  in  the 
complete  downfall,  for  many  centuries,  of  imperial  terri- 
torial power,  and  the  consequence  was  that  even  as  German 
kings  the  emperors  also  lost  their  power.  The  contention 
between  the  emperors  and  popes  was  one  regarding  epis- 
copal appointments,  which  the  emperors  wished  to  control 
on  account  of  the  enormous  dimensions  of  the  spiritual 
territories  which  they  themselves  had  created  in  order 
indirectly  to  keep  the  territorial  power  in  their  own  hands. 
This  was  constantly  tending  to  slip  from  their  grasp,  owing 
to  the  hereditary  power  of  the  feudal  sovereignties.*  The 
popes  naturally  preferred  to  have  the  appointment  of 
bishops  made  for  ecclesiastical  and  not  for  territorial  and 
political  reasons,  and  to  retain  the  privilege  of  confirming 
or  rejecting  the  appointment,  which  practically  gave  them  a 
share  in  making  it. 

As  one  result  of  the  success  of  the  popes  in  this  contest, 
aside  from  the  great  increase  in  their  own  political  signifi- 
cance, we  may  mention  the  complete  independence  of  the 
Italian  civic  states  from  the  Germanic  emperor.  Another 
result  was  the  reduction  of  the  titular  king  of  Germany  and 

*  The  enlargement  of  the  bishoprics  was  part  of  their  effort  to  break  down  the 
opposition  to  the  monarchy  of  the  hereditary  feudal  sovereignties.  The  right  of 
filling  vacancies  in  spiritual  appointments  was  thus  used  by  the  emperors  to 
antagonize  the  feudal  system.  When  large  territories  were  given  away  at  each 
new  episcopal  appointment  something  could  be  exacted  in  return  and  the  influence 
remained  with  the  king.  Where  large  states  were  hereditary  this  influence 
was  lost. 

208 


The   Gothic  Period.  209 


titular  emperor  of  Christendom  to  such  a  condition  of 
weakness  that  he  was  frequently  worse  off  in  estates  and 
influence  than  many  of  his  own  supposed  vassals. 

On  the  other  hand,  France  now  became  what  Germany 
had  been — the  leading  state  of  Europe.  Her  kings  began 
to  consolidate  their  territories  and  to  master  them  in  fact, 
as  well  as  in  name.  In  this  rise  to  power  they  were 
assisted  by  an  alliance  with  the  communes  (that  is,  the 
cities  of  France),  which  were  in  turn  protected  and  assisted 
by  the  kings  in  their  own  contentions  with  the  feudal 
nobles. 

The  crusades  had  been  especially  favored  and  supported 
by  France,  and  their  reacting  influence  on  European  his- 
tory was  also  most  apparent  in  this  country.  This  influ- 
ence was  partly  to  further  commerce,  partly  to  increase  the 
power  of  the  kings,  partly  to  weaken  the  influence  of  the 
feudal  nobles — all  results  which  in  one  way  or  another 
raised  the  importance  of  the  cities. 

Now  the  first  Gothic  cathedrals  were  built  in  France  and 
within  the  individual  domain  of  their  kings.  Their  archi- 
tectural style  was  a  French  invention.  Its  spread  through- 
out Europe  signifies  French  ascendency  and  influence  in 
the  later  Middle  Ages,  as  the  Romanesque  especially 
signifies  Germanic  power  and  greatness  in  the  earlier 
Middle  Ages.  As  regards  England,  Germany,  and  Spain, 
the  Gothic  was  a  borrowed  style.  As  far  as  it  very  slightly 
influenced  Italy  the  same  point  holds. 

In  Gothic  architecture  we  have  therefore  to  consider 
two  distinct  movements.  One  was  the  evolution  as  accom- 
plished in  one  spot.  The  other  was  the  gradual  displace- 
ment of  Romanesque  methods  in  countries  exterior  to 
France,  where  they  were  supplanted  by  a  style  directly 
introduced  and,  so  to  speak,  ready-made. 


2io  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

As  the  rise  and  spread  of  Gothic  cathedral  architecture 
was  undoubtedly  the  most  important  feature  of  art  history 
between  the  thirteenth  and  the  sixteenth  centuries  (1200- 
1500  A.  D.),  this  period  is  accordingly  named  ;  but  most 
interesting  developments  in  the  art  of  design  were  made  in 
Italy  during  these  centuries,  which  were  quite  independent 
of  it,  as  was  also  mainly  the  Italian  architecture,  which 
is,  notwithstanding,  for  the  given  dates  known  as  the 
"Italian  Gothic." 

The  word  "  Gothic"  itself  is  one  of  Italian  coinage 
and  was  used  by  the  Italians  of  the  later  Middle  Ages 
to  designate  all  buildings  of  Northern  Europe  without 
reference  to  any  of  our  own  distinctions  of  period  or  style. 
We  still  speak  of  the  "  Goths  and  Vandals  "  when  we  wish 
to  designate  barbarism,  and  the  word  "Gothic"  simply 
meant  to  Italian  comprehension  ' '  Germanic ' '  in  the  large 
sense,  or,  as  we  should  say,  ' '  medieval. ' '  Both  the  Visi- 
goths and  Ostrogoths  had  been  invaders  of  Italy  during 
the  downfall  of  the  Western  Roman  Empire.*  The  word 
' '  Goth  ' '  was  thus  a  characteristic  designation  for  the  Ger- 
mans at  large,  and  although  France  in  the  later  Middle 
Ages  had  lost  all  vestige  of  her  Frankish  Germanic  origins, 
the  Italians  were  good  enough  historians,  or  bitter  enough 
haters,  to  remember  that  all  the  countries  of  the  Western 
Empire  had  been  Germanized  and  that  Italy  had  suffered 
most  from  their  invasions  because  she  had  the  most  to 
lose. 

This  historic  prejudice  of  the  Italian  against  Germanic 
and  Northern  Europe  explains  the  first  use  of  the  word 
' '  Gothic, ' '  which  was  subsequently  adopted  by  Northern 
Europe  with  the  style  and  taste  of  the  Renaissance  during 

*The  Goths  had  been  designated  as  West  Goths  and  East  Goths,  according  to 
their  location  north  of  the  lower  Danube;  hence  the  names  "Visigoth"  and 
"Ostrogoth." 


The  Gothic  Period.  211 


and  after  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  this  Renaissance 
style  (revival  of  the  Greco-Roman  classic  style)  which 
finally,  then,  displaced  and  supplanted  the  Gothic.  This 
was  abandoned  more  or  less  rapidly  all  over  Europe, 
and  there  is,  broadly  speaking,  a  gap  of  three  hundred 
years  between  the  modern  copies  of  Gothic  buildings  and 
the  old  originals,  which  gap  is  rilled  by  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance style.* 

In  Northern  Renaissance  Europe  the  word  "Gothic" 
was  also  applied  indiscriminately  to  medieval  buildings 
of  all  dates  and  without  reference  to  the  peculiar  style 
which  we  distinguish  by  it.  The  word  was  also  used  in  the 
same  contemptuous  and  prejudicial  sense.  It  was  not  till 
the  nineteenth  century  that  a  revived  interest  in  the  Middle 
Ages  at  large  led  to  a  revived  interest  in  the  latest,  largest, 
and  most  numerous  cathedrals,  and  a  distinctive  name  was 
then  required  for  their  style.  This  was  obtained  by 
confining  the  word  already  in  use  to  the  one  period  and 
coining  new  ones  for  the  earlier  styles. 

This  history  of  the  word  is  therefore  a  history  of  the 
causes  which  led  to  the  overthrow  of  the  style,  and  also  of 
the  causes  which  have  recently  led  to  its  revival  and  to  the 
modern  study  of  its  ancient  monuments. 

Although  the  earliest  Gothic  buildings  are  in  the  French 
territory  surrounding  the  city  of  Paris  (the  choir  of  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Denis,  Cathedrals  of  Noyon,  Laon,  and  of 
Notre  Dame  in  Paris),  it  is  through  the  fully  developed 
buildings  that  we  can  most  distinctly  explain  Gothic  traits 
and  we  shall  select  examples  for  illustration  without  refer- 
ence to  early  date  accordingly,  f 

The  elementary  explanations  of  the  rise  of  the  Gothic 

*  Before  the  Greek  revival  of  the  later  eighteenth  century, 
t  The  choir  of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Denis  dates  from  1144. 


The   Gothic  Period.  213 


style  are  all  connected  with  the  increasing  areas  and  size  of 
the  great  cathedrals,  and  this  increase  of  dimensions,  as 
found,  for  instance,  in  France,  is  related  to  the  growth 
of  the  French  cities  under  the  political  and  historical  con- 
ditions just  explained.  And  what  held  especially  for 
France  at  this  time  in  the  first  instance,  held  also  for 
Europe  in  general  in  its  Gothic  period.  The  prosperity 
of  England  was  never  so  great,  at  least  since  the  days 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  as  it  was  from  the  time  of  Edward 
I.  on  (thirteenth  century);  and  the  beginnings  of  the 
English  Gothic  date  from  the  times  of  John  and  the  Magna 
Charta  (early  thirteenth  century).*  The  prosperity  of  the 
Netherland  cities,  owing  especially  to  their  manufactures  of 
cloth,  was  something  phenomenal  in  the  later  Middle  Ages. 
Although  the  monarchy  had  been  depressed  in  Germany 
the  free  cities  had  risen  in  importance.  Now  came  the 
great  days  of  the  Hanseatic  League  and  of  the  commerce 
of  the  Baltic.  There  have  never  been  in  Europe  since  that 
time  such  imposing  buildings,  such  enormous  church  in- 
teriors. St.  Peter's  at  Rome  and  St.  Paul's  at  London  are 
rare  exceptions  of  large  interiors  for  modern  (Renaissance) 
times  as  compared  with  the  general  rule  for  all  the  impor- 
tant Gothic  cathedrals. 

In  laying  stress  on  this  point  of  the  commercial  prosper- 
ity of  the  cities  and  the  consequent  demand  for  large 
cathedrals,  we  must  of  course  also  take  account  of  condi- 
tions which  would  explain  why  commercial  prosperity  in 
later  times  has  not  had  an  equal  influence  in  the  same 
direction. 

One  main  explanation  is  that  the  public  spirit  of  these 
cities  was  more  active  because  they  were  more  independ- 


*The  first  Gothic  portions   of  Canterbury  Cathedral  were  begun  in  1174  by  a 
French  architect. 


214  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

ent.  They  were  practically  independent  civic  states.  The 
league  between  them  and  royalty  in  France  was  much 
more  one  of  joint  partnership  of  opposition  to  the  power 
of  the  nobles  than  a  condescending  protectorate  on  the 
one  hand  or  a  dependent  submission  on  the  other.  In 
all  countries  of  the  late  Middle  Ages,  excepting  Italy, 
where  there  was  no  monarchy,  the  general  rule  holds  of  an 
alliance  between  the  monarchy  and  the  commercial  classes. 
Contrary  to  possible  supposition,  monarchy  and  aristocracy 
are  by  no  means  synonymous  terms  or  natural  allies.  In 
original  development  they  have  always  been  rivals  and 
were  avowedly  so  in  Europe  down  to  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. The  kings  wanted  money  and  it  was  only  the  cities 
which  could  give  it.  Standing  armies  and  artillery  to 
crush  feudal  opposition  to  the  monarchy  were  thus  ob- 
tained. 

Backed  by  this  alliance,  the  public  spirit  of  the  cities 
of  that  day  corresponded  to  the  patriotism  of  a  modern 
nation,  but  was  a  much  more  active  force  in  art  because 
the  relation  between  art  and  the  people  was  more  direct 
and  more  obvious.  The  cathedral,  when  it  was  built,  was 
seen  and  used  by  all  the  citizens  who  had  helped  to  pay  for 
it.  They  all  took  a  personal  pride  in  it  and  all  felt  a 
personal  rivalry  with  every  other  city  which  was  boasting 
or  preparing  to  boast  of  its  own  great  structure.  Human- 
ity only  reaches  great  results  when  combined  and  organ- 
ized in  masses  ;  but  these  masses  must  not  be  so  large  that 
the  individual  loses  his  sense  of  relation  to  the  whole, 
or  that  his  individual  interests  are  not  visibly  a  part  of  the 
whole.  In  the  modern  states  a  national  public  art  corre- 
sponding to  that  of  the  Greeks  or  of  the  Middle  Ages  has 
been  so  far  impossible  because  public  art,  to  be  good,  must 
be  visible  to  all  the  people  who  pay  for  it  and  must 


The  Gothic  Period.  215 


represent  their  personal  interests  and  show  forth  their 
personal  ambition  and  personal  pride.  The  modern  state 
is  too  large  as  compared  with  the  free  city  of  the  Middle 
Ages  to  obtain  such  results  in  art  as  were  then  obtained— 
as  far  as  society  has  been  organized  since  that  time. 

All  explanations  or  comprehensions  of  a  great  art  must 
start  from  the  conditions  which  produced  it.  Therefore, 
we  must  first  consider  the  Gothic  architecture  from  this 
point  of  view.  Its  masonry  is  vital  with  the  life  of  an  epoch 
and  this  we  must  first  try  to  seize.  One  grand  point  is  that 
modern  states  and  modern  nations  did  not  exist  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  There  were  corporations,  there  were  cities, 
there  were  religious  orders,  there  were  feudal  estates  with 
their  owners  (chiefs  or  "barons")  and  warrior  supporters, 
and  there  were  kings — but  there  were  no  countries  and  no 
nations.  That  is  to  say,  there  were  no  national  countries. 
Each  language  of  modern  Europe  is  the  development  of  a 
dialect.  In  the  language  of  a  given  nation  there  were  then 
as  many  dialects  as  there  are  now  languages  in  Europe, 
and  these  were  as  incomprehensible  to  the  other  districts  of 
the  country  as  a  foreign  language  now  is  to  one  who  has 
not  learned  it.  This  was  one  great  cause  of  the  power 
of  the  clergy,  who  all  spoke  one  language,  viz.,  Latin. 
Now  a  nation  and  a  country,  as  we  understand  the  word, 
must  have  a  common  language.  This  is  the  first  necessary 
bond  between  men — to  be  understood.  In  the  absence  of 
a  country  and  of  obvious  national  interests,  the  corpora- 
tions, cities,  religious  orders,  and  feudal  estates  were  the 
units  of  society.  National  states  were  being  organized  by 
the  monarchies,  but  they  did  not  exist  in  a  developed  form 
until  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  Gothic  cathedral 
style  was  abandoned. 

An    equally   important    consideration    concerns    the   re- 


216  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

ligious  faith  of  the  people  and  the  importance  of  this  faith 
in  their  daily  lives,  and  consequently  in  their  art.  In 
the  absence  of  the  scientific,  historical,  poetic,  and  romantic 
literature  of  modern  times,  the  literature  of  the  Bible  had 
an  absorbing  historical  and  poetic,  as  well  as  purely  re- 
ligious, interest  for  the  Middle  Ages.  The  lessons  and 
the  stories  of  the  Bible  were  taught  and  told  by  painting 
and  sculpture  in  default  of  printed  books.  In  paintings 
and  sculptures  and  stained  glass,  the  cathedral  was  a  monu- 
ment of  literature  in  stone.  The  interest  in  church  matters 
is  shown  by  the  number  of  minor  churches  which  were 
built.  There  is  a  beautiful  church  in  Cologne  which  is  said 
to  have  been  built  in  the  leisure  hours  of  the  masons  of  the 
cathedral,  and  the  tradition  is  significant  without  any 
relation  to  its  truth.  That  smaller  churches  were  con- 
stantly built  in  the  close  neighborhood  of  the  cathedrals  in 
times  when  there  were  no  denominational  sects,  is  also 
very  significant.  This  brings  us  to  the  uses  and  public 
significance  of  a  cathedral. 

For  the  Gothic  period  the  cathedrals  were  almost  as 
much  civic  buildings  as  they  were  churches,  and  in  the 
sense  that  they  embodied  the  pride,  the  ambition,  and  the 
rivalries  of  the  cities,  this  was  eminently  the  case.  But 
they  were  also  actually  used  for  town  meetings,  for  public 
festivals,  and  for  theatrical  exhibitions — the  ''miracle 
plays ' '  and  ( '  passion  plays, ' '  which  have  survived  in 
one  famous  modern  instance  at  Ober-Ammergau.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  the  church  and  the  cathedral  were  always 
open,  like  the  Catholic  churches  of  our  own  day.  Here 
the  poor  man  was  the  equal  of  the  rich.  The  beggar  and 
his  lord  met  on  terms  of  equality  in  the  liberty  of  using  the 
building  and  in  the  theory  of  its  religious  teachings.  There 
were  no  pews  for  favored  owners.  The  cathedral  was  the 


FIG.  134. — TRANSEPT.     Cologne  Cathedral. 


218  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

palace  of  the  poor,  and  its  entire  space  outside  the  sanctu- 
ary was  open  to  their  daily  visits  and  sojourn  at  will, 
without  disturbance. 

The  cathedral  was  the  museum  of  art  ;  a  museum  made, 
not  to  display  the  ostentation  of  the  rich  or  the  luxury 
of  his  life,  but  to  teach  by  pictures  and  reliefs  the  history 
of  the  world  as  then  known  and  comprehended  by  the 
traditions  of  the  church,  and  the  lessons  of  faith  and  of  sac- 
rifice. Here  were,  moreover,  the  actual  memorials  and 
relics  of  past  ages;  for  here  was  the  treasury  not  only  of 
the  art  of  the  present  but  also  of  the  art  of  the  past. 
Finally,  the  cathedral  was  the  sanctuary  of  the  famous  and 
illustrious  dead.  Their  tombs  were  its  decoration  and 
its  pride. 

This  popular  significance  and  these  popular  uses  hold  for 
the  cathedrals  of  all  periods,  consequently  for  the  Byzan- 
tine and  Romanesque  as  well  as  the  Gothic.  But  the 
Byzantine  cathedrals  were  more  largely  the  erections  of  the 
clergy,  the  Romanesque  cathedrals  were  largely  the  erec- 
tions of  the  Germanic  emperors  or  of  the  great  religious 
orders,  while  the  Gothic  cathedrals  were  especially  the 
buildings  of  the  municipalities.  The  union  in  these  build- 
ings of  the  arts  of  stained  glass,  of  fresco  ornament  and 
sculptured  stone  decoration,  of  panel  pictures,  of  metal 
work  in  the  altars,  shrines,  and  chandeliers,  and  of  wood- 
carving  in  the  seats  of  the  clergy,  is  to  be  constantly  kept 
in  mind.  The  pulpits  were  also  objects  of  special  artistic 
splendor. 

Thus  the  industrial  arts  of  the  Gothic  period  as  a  whole 
are  illustrated  through  these  buildings,  which  are  more- 
over, as  monuments  of  engineering  execution,  worthy  of 
all  admiration.  The  mathematical,  geometrical,  and  en- 
gineering science  requisite  for  their  construction  is  pur  best 


Gothic  Period.  219 


reference  for  the  high  civilization  of  their  time.  Their 
architects  were  moreover  not,  like  our  own,  educated  apart 
from  the  artisans  and  masons  and  sculptors  who  were  their 
servants. 

The  architect  of  the  cathedral  was  the  master-mason, 
a  fact  of  supreme  importance  for  the  perfection  of  these 
buildings,  for  the  understanding  of  their  subtle  art,  and  for 
the  comprehension  of  the  changed  conditions  in  our  own 
time  which  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  rival  them. 

It  was,  in  other  words,  the  actual  combination  of  theory 
and  practice  in  the  person  of  one  designer  which  made 
their  perfection.  Our  greatest  modern  architects  spend 
their  lives  in  an  office  where  they  employ  a  number  of 
draughtsmen  to  prepare  their  plans.  The  modern  con- 
structor who  is  employed  by  the  architect  belongs  to 
another  profession,  also  living  in  an  office,  and,  again, 
distinct  from  a  series  of  contractors  who  are  employed 
by  him.  These  again  employ  the  artisans  and  actual 
builders.  The  architect  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  a  man 
of  the  people  and  a  trained  mason  who  spent  his  life  on 
the  scaffolds  of  his  buildings  in  actual  superintendence 
of  the  work.  The  masons  and  carvers  themselves  were 
persons  of  experience  and  standing,  banded  together  in 
guilds  or  societies  which  perpetuated  their  traditions  of 
method  and  technical  skill.  These  corporations  never  died 
and  their  art  was  immortal  while  it  lasted.  The  ' '  Ma- 
sonic" societies  of  our  own  time  are  survivals  of  these 
masonic  guilds. 

I  should  be  far  from  underrating,  among  all  these  con- 
siderations, the  influence  of  the  church  itself  and  its  clergy. 
The  clergy  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  its  men  of  science  and 
of  learning,  its  teachers  and  masters  of  foreign  languages, 
its  literary  workers  and  students,  the  guardians,  moreover, 


220  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


of  the  literature  of  the  present  and  the  past.  They  were 
the  librarians,  the  diplomats,  and  the  courtiers  of  the  age, 
skilled  in  political  art  and  the  knowledge  of  men  ;  even 
warfare  was  not  always  foreign  to  their  life.  Finally, 
and  above  all,  they  were  teachers  of  religion.  At  once 
the  guardians  of  the  literature  and  civilization  of  Roman 
antiquity,  in  the  time  of  the  German  invasions  and  early 
German  states,  when  every  convent  was  a  center  of  instruc- 
tion in  the  industrial  arts  and  every  priest  a  mediator 
between  the  barbarian  and  his  helpless  prey,  they  had 
become  the  revered  and  honored  masters  of  their  age.  The 
wealth  of  their  corporations  and  their  orders  was  only 
equaled  by  their  charity  to  the  poor.  While  the  power  of 
the  king  and  the  baron  was  inherited  by  birth,  the  highest 
honors  of  the  church  were  open  to  the  son  of  the  humblest 
serf.  Visible  and  material  signs  and  results  of  this  power 
of  the  church  the  cathedrals  undoubtedly  were,  but  the 
Gothic  cathedrals,  especially,  were  undoubtedly  built,  in 
the  main,  by  the  energy  and  offerings  of  the  people  at 
large.  There  are  records  of  the  donations  by  women  of 
their  jewels,  and  by  poor  people  of  various  modest  offer- 
ings and  small  sums  of  money,  which  prove  this  to  have 
been  the  case. 

We  have  been  led  into  an  account  of  the  general  causes 
which  contributed  to  the  grandeur  of  the  Gothic  cathe- 
drals, by  insisting  first  on  the  average  increase  of  area  and 
dimensions  in  important  churches,  as  due  to  a  particular 
rise  in  power  of  the  cities  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  which 
France  led  the  way.  We  may  begin  our  explanation  of  the 
style  itself  in  structural  details  by  showing  that  the  pointed 
arch,  which  is  one  main  feature  of  it,  was  adopted  on 
account  of  this  increased  dimension. 


CHAPTER  X. 

GOTHIC    ARCHITECTURE. 

THE  pointed  arch  is  not  known  in  existing  remains  of 
architecture  (outside  of  Assyrian  vaulted  drains  and  ruins 
of  the  upper  Nile)  before  the  time  of  the  Arab  buildings 
(Figs.  112—116).  There  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  through 
contact  with  these  that  its  form  became  familiar  to  the 
crusaders  as  well  as  to  architects  of  Spain  and  Southern 
Italy.  The  pointed  arch  is  found  in  occasional  use  in  the 
later  Romanesque,  and  we  find  here  another  instance  of 
the  transitions  by  which  the  new  style  was  reached,  but  as 
it  appears  in  these  cases  it  was  used  without  any  distinct 
system  of  Gothic  development.  In  the  case  of  the  Gothic 
style  it  is  clear  that  its  adoption  was  not  due  to  imitation 
of  Saracenic  art  or  to  any  decorative  preference.  A 
decorative  preference  might  appear  to  be  indicated  by  its 
constant  decorative  use,  for  the  round  arch  is  not  found  in 
the  Gothic  period,  excepting  in  Italy,  but  the  original 
explanation  is  to  be  sought  in  the  weight  of  the  vaulted 
ceilings.  The  decorative  use  followed  the  construction. 

The  view  of  the  ruin  of  Melrose  Abbey  (Fig.  137)  is  the 
best  illustration  on  this  head,  because  its  peculiar  and  un- 
usual exhibition  of  a  section  of  the  actual  construction  shows 
the  weight  of  masonry  which  presses  on  the  arch.  The 
weight  is  greater  here  than  was  usually  the  case,  but  the 
illustration  serves  its  purpose,  This  will  consequently  lead 
us  to  consider  the  difficulties  and  problems  which  beset  the 
constructors  of  the  round-arch  Romanesque  vaultings.  We 


222 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


have  already  insisted  on  the  point  that  the  Gothic  can  only 
be  comprehended  through  a  preliminary  study  of  the  sys- 
tem of  vaulting  employed  by  the  Romanesque  (page  195). 
Mathematically  considered,  we  know  that  the  round 
arch  is  a  perfectly  stable  form,  but,  physically  considered, 


FIG.  135.— WELLS  CATHEDRAL. 

the  resistance  on  the  sides  must  be  sufficient  to  keep  its 
blocks  in  position.  If  the  side  resistance  gives  way  or  is 
weakened,  the  blocks  of  the  arch  are  displaced  and  the 
entire  structure  is  ruined  by  its  fall.  That  this  disaster 
actually  befell  a  certain  number  of  early  Gothic  cathedrals 
during,  or  soon  after,  construction  is  known,  and  this  helps 
us  to  understand  the  pains  taken  in  other  cases  to  avoid 
this  misfortune.  For  instance,  in  the  case  of  the  choir  of 
Beauvais,  where  unusually  lofty  dimensions  were  attempted, 


Gothic  Architecture. 


223 


the  ceiling  of  the  choir  fell  in,  twelve  years  after  comple- 
tion, and  the  entire  building  had  to  be  reconstructed  in 
consequence. 

In  the  enormous  development  of  dimension  in  the 
buildings  which  began  to  be  used  in  the  Gothic  period, 
the  round-arch  vaultings  were  found  insecure  for  the  in- 
creased height,  width,  and  weight.  Some  instances  of  the 
dimensions  attained  will  explain  the  reasons.  The  height 
of  the  nave  at  Amiens  is  132  feet,  at  Beauvais  146  feet,  at 
Cologne  140  feet,  at  Burgos  140  feet,  at  Milan  157  feet. 
Milan  Cathedral  holds  40,000  people.  The  spire  of 
Strassburg  is  452  feet 
high.  The  Church 
of  San  Petronio  at 
Bologna  was  planned 
for  a  length  of  640 
feet.  The  exterior 
length  of  Cologne 
Cathedral  is  530  feet, 
of  Lincoln  Cathedral 


524  feet,  of  Salisbury 
Cathedral  430  feet. 
The  area  covered  by 
York  Cathedral  ex- 
ceeds by  4,100  feet 
that  of  St.  Paul's. 
The  span  of  the  cathe- 
dral nave  of  Pal  ma 
in  Spain  is  65  feet,  at 
Gerona  in  Spain  it  is 

73  feet.  When  the  average  dimensions  of  the  great  cathe- 
drals are  considered  and  especially  the  great  heights  of 
the  naves,  the  reason  for  the  use  of  the  pointed  arch  will 


FIG.  136.— LINCOLN  CATHEDRAL. 


224 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


easily  appear.  In  preference  to  adding  to  the  weight  of 
the  exterior  walls,  which  would  have  been  practically  im- 
possible, resort  was  had  to  the  pointed  form  of  the  arch,  in 

which  the  lateral  pres- 
sure relieves  the  key- 
stone from  a  portion 
of  the  weight. 

From  the  way  in 
which  two  leaning  ob- 
jects will  support  one 
another,  we  may 
understand  how  the 
two  sides  of  a  pointed 
arch  lean  against  and 
tend  to  support  one 
another.  The  employ- 
ment of  the  pointed 
arch  in  doors  and 
windows  was  a  con- 
venience of  use  follow- 
ing that  which  was 

FIG.  137.— WEST  FRONT.    Melrose  Abbey. 

absolutely     necessary, 

and  its  application  to  decorative  details  was  a  natural  con- 
sequence. 

A  consideration  favoring  the  use  of  the  pointed  arch 
was  its  adaptability  to  the  varying  widths  of  nave  and 
aisles  when  connected  with  one  given  pier.  In  the 
Romanesque  interiors  (Figs.  119,  120),  it  will  be  ob- 
served that  only  the  alternate  piers  have  pilasters,  which 
are  connected  by  ribs  with  the  ceiling  of  the  nave.  The 
given  number  of  piers  represent  ribbed  supports  for  every 
bay  of  the  aisles  (compare  the  aisle  of  Peterborough, 
Fig.  120)  which  are  half  the  width  of  the  nave ;  but  because 


Gothic  Architecture.  225 

the  round  arches  are  concentric  they  must  span  a  greater 
space  when  they  rise  to  a  greater  height  (Fig.  117). 
With  the  pointed  arch  every  pier  of  the  side  aisles  was 
also  available  as  a  true  pier  for  the  nave  (Figs.  138,  139), 
because  arches 'of  varying  height  could  be  carried  from  the 
same  pier.  The  gain  in  security  for  the  nave,  or  what 
comes  to  the  same  thing,  the  economy  of  material  to 
secure  a  given  result,  is  obvious.  We  can  see  in  Fig.  138 
that  the  arches  inclosing  the  upper  windows  of  the  bays 
must  be  more  pointed  than  those  which  span  the  nave, 
and  in  Fig.  117,  for  the  Romanesque,  we  can  see  that  the 
arches  which  span  the  nave  are  equal  in  size  to  those 
which  reach  from  the  same  piers  to  form  the  upper  bays  of 
the  nave.  The  intermediate  piers  are  here  only  available 
for  the  vaultings  of  the  aisles. 

I  have  intentionally  massed  together  the  views  for  the 
interiors  of  the  Gothic  churches.  In  all  of  them  the  solid 
masonry  of  the  ceiling  must  be  especially  considered.  In 
some  of  them  the  skeleton  framework  of  the  ribbings, 
which  are  the  main  lines  of  support  for  the  ceiling,  is  espe- 
cially distinct  in  the  pictures  (Figs.  138,  139).  A  point 
which  cannot  be  well  illustrated  in  photographs,  and 
which  can  with  difficulty  be  observed  in  the  buildings 
when  the  ceiling  is  viewed  from  the  floor,  is  the  manner  in 
which  the  spaces  between  the  ribs  are  slightly  arched  in 
such  a  way  as  to  make  the  ribs  the  actual  supports  of  the 
ceiling.  These  in  their  turn  transmit  the  pressure  to  the 
piers. 

The  piers  of  the  Gothic  have  a  lighter  and  more  slender 
construction  than  those  of  the  Romanesque.  The  latter 
were  sometimes  of  plain  square  section  (Figs.  119,  121), 
or  were  square  and  beveled  at  the  corners,  or  were  some- 
times massive  and  clumsy  round  supports,  as  in  Fig.  122 


FIG.  138.— CATHEDRAL  OF  BAYONNE. 


226 


Gothic  Architecture. 


227 


(the  latter  mainly  Norman).  With  other  Romanesque 
piers  are  found  small  pilasters  leading  up  to  the  ribs  above 
and  connected  with  them  (Figs.  117,  120).  In  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Mainz  we  see  the  square  pier  alternating  with  the 
square  pier  and  pilaster  (Fig.  119). 

In  the  Gothic  the  piers  are  generally  treated  as  a  cluster 
of  slender  ribs,  each  rising  to  its  own  definite  and  special 
functions  (Figs.  138,  139,  140).  Effects  of  a  massive  or 
clumsy  appearance  are  avoided.  A  strictly  logical  and 
strictly  economical  use  of  materials  and  forces  is  apparent. 
Round  piers  are  not  unknown  to  the  Gothic,  but  they  are 
not  generally  found  in  highly  developed  or  characteristic 
examples  of  the  style. 

In  the  use  of  the 
pointed  arch  there  is 
the  appearance  of  an 
aspiring  tendency  and 
of  a  sentiment  for  alti- 
tude.  This  is  en- 
hanced by  the  treat- 
ment of  the  pier, 
which  multiplies,  both 
by  lights  and  by 
shadows,  the  rising 
lines  which  tend  to 
enhance  the  effect  of 
height.  The  same 
sentiment  is  visible  in 
the  actually  enormous 
altitudes  of  the  cathe- 
drals. These  effects  of 

altitude  are  also  exaggerated  by  a  relative  narrowness  of 
nave  and  aisles  (Figs.  139,  140).  The  general  result  is 


228 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


to  dwarf  the  spectator  and  his  immediate  surroundings. 
It   was   not   only   actual    dimension   but   the   effect   of 
dimension  which  was  sought  for  and  attained.     Dispropor- 
tionately  high   apartments  and   those  which  surprise  the 

eye  by  an  effect  of 
height  are  known  to 
have-this  effect  of 
dwarfing,  in  appear- 
ance, the  persons  in 
them.  In  this  point 
of  the  effect  of  dimen- 
sion the  cathedrals 
attain  greater  results 
than  the  pyramids, 
with  far  less  material 
effort. 

For  the  matter  of 
the  Gothic  windows 
we  should  logically 
be  speaking  of  the 
interiors  for  whose 
service  they  are  made, 
but  exterior  views  may 
illustrate  them  more  visibly,  as  being  taken  from  the  sides 
of  the  buildings  rather  than  down  the  length  of  nave  or 
aisles  (Figs.  133,  141).  In  developed  examples  almost 
the  whole  wall  surface,  aside  from  the  fa9ades,  is  given  up 
to  the  windows.  The  infinitely  varied  designs  of  their  deli- 
cate stone  ribbings  are  a  beautiful  feature  of  the  Gothic. 
The  perpendicular  stone  bars  are  called  ' '  mullions. ' ' 

The  delight  in  the  color  effects  of  the  stained  glass 
window  pictures  is  undoubtedly  one  explanation  of  their 
dimensions  and  number,  but  it  should  be  added  that 


FIG.  140. — CATHEDRAL  OF  NANTES. 


Gothic  Architecture.  229 

throughout  the  developed  and  later  Gothic  there  is  an 
obvious  effort  to  dispense  as  far  as  possible  with  blank 
walls,  or  solid  masonry  surfaces.  It  is  on  this  account 
that  in  developed  and  later  Gothic,  as  far  as  the  masonry 
appears,  it  is  treated  in  filigree,  so  to  speak  (Fig.  142); 
/.  e.,  broken  up  as  regards  effect  of  bare  surface  by  the 
expansion  over  the  wall  surfaces  of  a  tracery  system  bor- 
rowed originally  from  the  designs  of  the  windows  (Figs. 

134,  H1)- 

It  is  in  the  same  sense  and  to  the  same  purpose  that  the 
statuary  decoration  is  conceived  and  elaborated.  We 
must  remember,  however,  that  the  effort  to  illustrate  the 
lessons  and  teachings  of  religion  and  to  glorify  the  saints 
and  prophets  and  apostles  was  also  in  question  here.  In 
the  great  Gothic  portals  the  statues  may  be  counted  by 
fifties  and  by  hundreds,  and  they  are  frequently  lavishly 
distributed  over  other  portions  of  the  building,  especially 
on  the  facades.  There  are  two  thousand  statues  on  the 
exterior  of  Milan  Cathedral. 

So  far  we  have  considered  everything  but  the  one  thing 
of  importance  essential  to  all  the  rest,  namely,  the  stability 
of  the  building.  When  we  remember  that  these  tremen- 
dous vaultings  of  the  interior  have  been  raised  high  in  air 
over  walls  which  on  the  sides  of  the  building,  at  least,  are 
conspicuous  for  their  flimsy  appearance  and  large  window 
openings,  it  is  evident  that  the  buttress  architecture  of 
the  exterior  was  a  serious  and  necessary  feature — not 
designed  for  ornament  or  to  please  the  eye,  but  the  abso- 
lute and  sole  condition  of  the  existence  of  the  building. 

It  is  here  that  our  own  modern  copies  of  the  Gothic 
buttresses  have  tended  to  obscure  their  original  use.  The 
vaultings  of  the  old  Gothic  cathedrals  have  been  so  rarely 
attempted  in  modern  times  that  the  instances  are  not 


FIG.  141.— CHOIR.     Milan  Cathedral. 


Gothic  Architecture. 


231 


worth  mention  as  a  matter  of  argument.  Where  vaultings 
are  seen  in  appearance,  they  are  imitations  in  cement  or  in 
stuccoed  laths  and  plaster.  At  the  time  when  copies  of 
the  Gothic  became  fashionable  in  modern  architecture, 
little  attention  had  been  paid  to  the  constructive  conditions 
of  the  old  buildings.  It  was  their  appearance,  not  their 
construction,  which  was  imitated.  The  sentiment  which 
called  for  these  imitations  was  a  literary  historic  interest,  a 
literary  fashion,  not  a  movement  inspired  by  the  necessities 


FIG.  142.— ST.  MACLOU.    Rouen. 

or  habits  of  modern  construction.  We  have  consequently 
become  so  familiarized  with  the  appearance  of  the  buttress 
in  imitations  of  the  Gothic,  that  it  is  difficult  to  realize  its 
constructive  necessity  in  the  ancient  cathedrals. 

It  is  undeniable  that  the  use  of  the  buttress  in  appropriate 


232  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

and  modest  dimensions  was  transferred  to  village  timber- 
roofed  churches — equally  undeniable  that  there  is  not  one 
great  Gothic  cathedral  of  the  continent  of  Europe  which  is 
not  vaulted  and  that  the  style  as  such  is  a  vaulting  style. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  objection  to  a  wall  buttress, 
wherever  and  whenever  it  is  needed,  and  it  may  easily  be 
made  a  means  to  economy  of  material  in  a  timber-roofed 
church,  but  its  imitation  as  a  matter  of  "style"  without 
reference  to  use,  which  has  been  a  very  general  thing  in 
the  modern  Gothic  copies,  is  absurd — as  all  unthinking 
imitations  must  always  be.  It  is  this  frequent  lack  of  con- 
structive necessity  in  the  modern  Gothic  buttress  which 
has  promoted  the  recent  movement  in  favor  of  the  modern 
"Italian  Gothic"  and  the  modern  "Romanesque." 

In  the  old  cathedrals  the  "flying  buttress"  was  a  neces- 
sary consequence  of  the  higher  elevation  of  the  nave  as 
compared  with  the  lower  elevation  of  the  side  aisles.  Its 
practical  use  is  perhaps  best  illustrated  by  the  view  of 
Melrose  Abbey  (Fig.  137),  although  it  appears  here  in  a 
rudimentary  and  clumsy  form.  The  buttress  was  fre- 
quently surmounted  by  a  pinnacle ;  always,  in  fact,  when 
the  flying  buttress  was  used  ;  or  by  a  statue  surmounted 
by  a  canopy.  The  pinnacle  added  an  additional  weight  to 
the  resisting  power.  It  also  emphasized  the  rising  lines  of 
the  building  and  its  effects  of  altitude.  It  was,  in  a  word, 
an  ornament  emphasizing  construction. 

It  will,  on  the  whole,  best  explain  the  uses  of  the 
buttress  to  consider  in  the  case  of  a  given  building  (Fig. 
145)  what  the  alternative  would  be  if  the  given  cathedral 
were  Romanesque.  In  this  case  the  wall  would  neces- 
sarily be  as  thick  at  all  points  and  in  solid  mass  as  it  now 
is  where  the  buttresses  project.  The  same  econon-fy  of 
material  and  effort  is  therefore  visible  here  which  appears 


FIG.  143.— CHOIR.     Cathedral  of  Quimper. 


234  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

otherwise  in  the  Gothic.  The  resistance  of  the  buttress  is 
always  exactly  opposed  to  the  interior  pier.  We  have 
seen  that  the  treatment  of  the  ribbed  skeleton  of  the  vault- 
ing is  such  that  all  the  weight  converges  on  the  pier.  It 
is  exactly  at  the  corresponding  exterior  point  that  the 
buttress  is  placed.  This  will  be  also  apparent  by  com- 
paring the  exterior  relation  of  the  window  spacings  between 
the  buttresses  to  their  interior  situation  between  the  piers. 

An  ornament  which  is  very  common  in  the  middle 
Gothic  and  later  Gothic  of  the  Continent,  but  less  common 
in  England,  is  the  gable-shaped  skeleton  masonry  form 
which  appears  over  portals  or  window  in  Figs.  134,  142. 
This  is  a  reminiscence  of  the  upper  construction  of  a 
cathedral  in  cross-section,  understanding  the  gable  line  as 
representing  the  exterior  roof  and  the  pointed  arch  line  as 
representing  the  interior  vaulting.  It  must  be  observed 
that  a  solid  stone  vaulting  extending  to  the  line  of  the 
roof,  as  it  appears  in  Melrose  Abbey  (Fig.  137),  is  an 
unusual  deviation  from  the  usual  construction,  which 
admitted  an  interior  vacant  space  between  the  arched 
vaulting  and  the  beams  of  the  exterior  timber  roof,  which 
was  always,  of  course,  tiled  or  slated  over.  This  point 
regarding  the  distinction  between  the  exterior  protecting 
roof  and  the  interior  masonry  ceiling  is  an  important  one. 
The  former  was  demanded  to  prevent  the  penetration  of 
moisture  into  the  joints  of  the  masonry  and  its  consequent 
disintegration  as  the  result  of  frost  or  otherwise. 

The  capitals  and  other  ornamental  details  of  the  Gothic 
show  at  first  dependence  on  the  later  Romanesque  and 
gradually  develop  from  them,  but  the  naturalism  which,  in 
the  Romanesque,  had  advanced  to  grotesque  forms  taken 
from  the  animal  world,  now  seized  on  the  forms  of 
vegetable  life  and  applied  them  in  beautiful  adaptations  to 


Gothic  Architecture. 


235 


architectural  detail.  The  later  Gothic  shows  a  great  deal  of 
closely  realistic  ornament,  but  with  the  necessary  amount 
of  conventional  treatment  required  by  the  solid  material. 

I  have  so  far  avoided  reference  to  matters  of  local 
interest  or  to  individual  buildings,  aside  from  their  use  to 
illustrate  general  points,  and  in  the  choice  of  the  views  I 
have  been  controlled  by  the  availability  of  the  photograph 
for  a  given  purpose,  rather  than  by  the  reputation  or  other 
importance  of  the  building;  but  some  indications  on  the 
head  of  specially 
famous  buildings  will 
be  expected. 

According  to  ex- 
planations given,  the 
French  Gothic  de- 
serves first  considera- 
tion as  a  matter  of 
logic,  and  because  the 
deviations  from  French 
standards  in  other 
countries  are  to  be  ex- 
plained where  they 
occur,  by  local  causes 
or  national  predispo- 
sitions. The  pictur- 
esque beauty  and  the 
grand  effects  of  the 
Gothic  are  found  in  all 
European  countries, 
but  since  they  are  due 
to  France  in  the  first  instance,  this  country  should  stand 
first  in  mention.  Among  the  earliest  fully  completed 
Gothic  cathedrals  of  France  may  be  mentioned  those  of 


FIG.  144.— TOURS  CATHEDRAL. 
Buttress.) 


(The  Flying 


236 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


Noyon,  Laon,  and  Notre  Dame  at  Paris.  In  order  of 
time  the  Cathedral  of  Amiens  is  the  first  example  of 
developed  Gothic.  Rheims,  Chartres,  Rouen,  and  St. 
Denis  near  Paris,  cannot  be  omitted  from  any  mention. 
The  Church  of  St.  Ouen  at  Rouen  (distinct  from  the 
cathedral  there)  deserves  and  has  an  equal  reputation. 

Not  to  mention  many 
others  will  seem  unjust 
to  those  who  know 
them  by  name  or  by 
fame. 

In  Germany  the 
Cathedral  of  Cologne 
stands  first.  Strass- 
burg  and  St.  Stephen's 
at  Vienna  probably 
deserve  the  next  men- 
tion. In  Italy,  Milan, 
and  in  Spain,  Burgos, 
claim  the  first  mention. 
In  England,  Westmin- 
ster Abbey  or  Canter- 
bury would  naturally 
take  first  place. 
After  these  are  named  discrimination  becomes  difficult. 
In  Belgium  the  Church  of  St.  Gudule,  at  Brussels,  and  the 
Cathedral  of  Antwerp  are  rivals  of  the  first  rank. 

It  is  difficult  to  dwell  on  the  number  or  the  magnificence 
of  hundreds  of  other  churches  of  this  period  without 
apparent  exaggeration  of  language  or  descriptions  which 
have  not  much  value  apart  from  illustrations.  It  is  to  be 
remembered,  however,  that,  although  the  Romanesque  is 
somewhat  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  matter  of  modern 


FIG.  145. — CHOIR.     Cathedral  of  Amiens. 


Gothic  Architecture. 


237 


survivals  and  also  of  popular  reputation,  it  has  its  own 
distinct  and  noble  worth.  In  the  matter  of  picturesque 
exteriors,  at  least,  it  has  no  cause  to  shun  comparison  with 
the  succeeding  style. 

Both  in  the  Romanesque  and  Gothic  there  is  a  regular 
transition,  depending  on  sequence  of  time  and  regular 
historic  development,  from  the  simple  and  severe  to  the 
elaborate  and  ornate.  The  early  Gothic  is  quite  simple 
and  relatively  massive,  the  windows  are  smaller,  and 
tracery  less  developed,  the  towers  heavier,  the  fa9ades 
plainer,  the  proportions  less  exaggerated  in  elevation,  and 
the  piers  plainer  in  treatment  than  in  the  developed 
Gothic.  The  ornament  is  restricted,  and  there  is  little 
that  is  realistic.  It  was  only  by  degrees  that  the  pure 
Gothic  character  was 
reached  and  this  again 
at  a  later  date  became 
florid,  overladen, 
pedantic,  capricious, 
and  illogical,  always 
also  by  degrees,  but 
with  increasing  rapid- 
ity as  the  sixteenth 
century  was  neared. 
The  corruption  and 
decadence  of  the  style 
were  very  apparent 

before  the  Renaissance  style  appeared  in  Northern  Europe, 
and  in  some  senses  the  Gothic  died  a  natural  death. 

These  distinctions  of  development  within  the  Gothic 
have  been  designated  in  English  terminology  for  English 
buildings  as  the  three  periods  of  the  "Early  English," 
the  "Decorative,"  and  the  "Perpendicular"  styles.  The 


FIG.  146. — CLOISTERS.    Winchester. 


238 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


word  "perpendicular"  relates  to  only  one  phase  of  the 
Gothic  decadence,  and  is  illustrated  by  the  cloister  of 
Winchester  (Fig.  146),  where  the  upright  lines  of  the 
window  tracery  are  seen  to  enter  the  exterior  lines  of  the 

arch  abruptly.  Com- 
pare the  window 
tracery  of  Figs.  134, 
141,  for  other  methods 
of  treatment.  This 
was  only  one  trait  of 
the  decay  of  taste  out 
of  many  which  are 
seen  in  the  decadence, 
but  it  is  by  this  trait 
that  the  English 
Gothic  decadence  has 
been  specified  in 
general.  A  very  depressed  arch  was  used  in  England  in 
the  late  Gothic,  which  is  known  as  the  "Tudor  arch." 
The  period  in  which  this  use  is  found  is  the  most  inferior 
of  all.  The  late  Gothic  is  known  in  France  as  the  "flam- 
boyant," /.  <?.,  the  florid  (or  flaming)  (Fig.  142).  Other- 
wise the  designations  of  "early,"  "middle,"  and  "late" 
Gothic  are  accepted.  It  must  be  understood  that  there 
are  no  definite  limits  between  these  periods.  Speaking 
generally,  the  late  twelfth  century  was  the  time  of  Gothic 
beginnings  in  France,  and  it  is  rarely  found  in  other 
countries  before  the  thirteenth  century ;  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries  are  both  periods  of  great  perfection, 
and  the  fifteenth  century  is  the  time  of  relative  decadence. 
Both  in  Germany  and  England  the  thirteenth  century  was 
the  time  of  the  introduction  of  the  Gothic.  In  Italy  it  was 
never  fully  or  generally  accepted.  Within  the  field  of  the 


FIG.  147.— GOTHIC  DETAILS.     Southwell 
Collegiate  Church.    Chapter  House. 


Gothic  Architecture.  239 


Gothic  proper  (i.  e.,  excluding  Italy)  England  is  the 
country  where  local  and  national  modifications  are  most 
obvious,  many  showing  that  the  style  was  practiced  more 
or  less  at  second  hand.  In  picturesque  beauty  and  general 
attractiveness  the  English  cathedrals  may  be  compared 
with  any,  but  preference  must  be  given  to  the  French  in 
the  study  of  the  evolution  of  the  style. 

As  regards  the  changes  of  Gothic  style  dependent  on  its 
general  evolution  and  decline,  it  must  be  observed  also 
that  these  are  constantly  apparent  in  the  various  parts  of 
one  given  building,  which  may  often  also  include  portions 
dating  from  the  Romanesque,  and  occasionally  from  early 
Christian  time.  The  consequent  varieties  of  treatment  in 
different  parts  of  one  building  have  much  to  do  with  the 
picturesque  qualities  of  medieval  structures.  Canterbury 
Cathedral  is  a  fine  instance.  The  amount  of  such  varia- 
tions depends  on  the  length  of  time  during  which  the 
given  building  was  undergoing  construction.  Fifty  or  one 
hundred  years  was  no  unusual  time,  and  many  exhibit  the 
work  of  four  or  five  different  centuries  at  least. 

In  the  Gothic  cathedral  we  still  find  the  plan  and  essen- 
tial arrangements  of  the  basilica.  The  choir,  which  fre- 
quently occupies  more  than  a  third  of  the  church  area, 
is  the  development  of  the  apse.*  The  arrangement  of 
the  nave  and  aisles  was  also  derived  from  the  basilica. 
Although  there  are  local  instances  in  which  the  aisles  rise 
to  the  height  of  the  nave,  all  the  great  cathedrals  inherited 
the  higher  nave  elevation.  The  effects  of  the  upper  light 
thus  obtained  have  much  to  do  with  the  mystery  and 
power  of  these  buildings.  The  upper  portion  of  the  nave 
rising  above  the  aisles  is  called  the  clerestory.  In  some  of 
the  Romanesque  churches,  there  are  galleries  over  the 

*  Compare  Figs.  133,  143;  145  with  Fig.  105. 


240 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


aisles  opening  on  the  nave  ;  for  instance,  in  the  Pisa  Cathe- 
dral (Fig.  128).  This  arrangement  is  found  also  in  many 
Gothic  cathedrals  and  is  known  as  the  "triforiufn"  (Fig. 
140).  In  other  cases  the  wall  surface  above  the  arches 
and  below  the  clerestory  is  relieved  by  an  imitative  gallery 
of  arches  and  pilasters  (Fig.  138).  The  number  of  aisles 
frequently  rises  to  four  in  the  great  cathedrals  and  this 

number  is  already 
found  in  some  basilicas. 
The  transepts  are 
developed  very  con- 
siderably beyond  the 
limits  of  the  Roman- 
esque. 

The  spires  of  the 
Gothic  are  an  evolu- 
tion from  the  Roman- 
esque towers  (Figs. 
123,  124,  125),  but  are 
never  found  in  the  four- 
fold flanking  fashion 
which  is  seen,  for  in- 
stance, in  the  Rhine 
cathedrals.  The  dis- 
position of  the  spires 
is  generally,  in  impor- 
tant churches,  two  flanking  the  facade  and  one  rising 
above  the  junction  of  the  nave  and  transept.  The  original 
of  this  last  arrangement  is  also  seen  above  the  Roman- 
esque transepts.  Many  cathedrals  were  unfinished  at  the 
opening  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  style  was 
generally  abandoned,  and  the  completion  of  the  spires  was 
always  left  to  the  last.  It  was  not  till  after  1871  that  the 


FIG.  148. — LICHFJELD  CATHEDRAL. 


Gothic  Architecture.  241 

completion  of  the  Cologne  Cathedral  spires  was  under- 
taken. The  famous  spire  of  Strassburg  is  only  one  of  an 
intended  pair  and  there  are  many  similar  cases. 

A  dissimilarity  in  the  two  flanking  spires  is  frequently 
found,  resulting  from  erection  at  different  dates  (Fig. 
149).  Such  an  explanation,  at  least,  is  constantly  offered, 
but  it  is  apparent  that  had  the  wish  for  exact  symmetry 
existed,  the  different  dates  of  erection  need  not  have 
interfered  with  it.  The  fact  really  is  that  mathematical 
symmetry  of  details  in  corresponding  parts  of  a  building 
was  not  only  indifferent  to  the  Middle  Ages  but  that  it  was 
actually  repugnant  to  its  taste.  Moreover,  it  is  in  such 
variations  that  the  picturesque  quality  of  the  buildings  lies. 
It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  ancient  Gothic  buildings 
are  superior  to  the  modern  imitations  even  when  the 
modern  dimensions  approach  the  old,  but  the  exact  causes 
and  conditions  of  this  superiority,  which  is  so  easily 
admitted,  are  by  no  means  clear  to  the  public  conscience ; 
and  for  the  improvement  of  our  own  architecture  it  is  very 
desirable  that  these  should  be  understood.  The  presump- 
tion generally  is  that  the  charm  of  antiquity,  the  associa- 
tions of  the  past,  and  historic  interest  are  mainly  responsi- 
ble for  our  superior  interest  in  old  Gothic  buildings  as 
compared  with  new.  In  other  words,  our  own  modern 
Gothic  might  in  the  future,  to  some  modest  extent,  vie 
with  that  of  the  past.  This  is  by  no  means  the  case. 

We  may  begin  our  explanation  by  noting  the  astonish- 
ing varieties  of  appearance  presented  by  the  medieval 
cathedrals  (of  any  epoch)  when  one  is  compared  with 
another.  Constant  surprises  in  contrast  of  individual 
appearance  will  meet  the  student  at  every  turn.  The 
individuality  in  single  examples  of  a  given  style  is  un- 
doubtedly much  more  marked  than  is  the  case  in  our 


242 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


modern  copies.  Now  the  same  variety  which  appears  in 
different  buildings,  when  one  is  contrasted  with  another,  is 
apparent  in  corresponding  parts  within  the  limits  of  a 
given  building.  In  the  complicated  window  traceries  of 

the  developed  Gothic  it 
is  rarely  the  case  that 
two  adjacent  windows 
or  any  two  windows 
of  the  one  building  are 
exactly  alike.  In  the 
sculptured  decoration 
of  the  capitals  of  the 
columns  the  same 
variety  appears.  In 
the  sculptured  ''gar- 
goyles," or  water- 
spouts for  carrying  off 
the  rain  from  the  roof, 
we  shall  find  generally 
a  new  design  for  each 
separate  piece  (Fig. 
150).  The  surface 
traceries  and  the  de- 
tails of  masonry  cutting  all  exhibit  this  spontaneous  vitality 
in  individual  execution. 

It  is  in  this  variety  of  the  details  that  the  charm  of  the 
building  consists.  The  eye  is  mystified,  kept  busy,  and 
kept  interested.  Every  change  of  view  is  a  change  of 
effect.  The  medieval  cathedral  has  the  same  qualities  of 
perpetual  variety  which  interest  us  in  landscape  scenery  or 
in  the  forest  vista.  When  we  ask  the  cause  of  this  quality, 
we  shall  find  it  to  lie  in  the  individual  creative  talent  and 
artistic  genius  of  the  masons,  stone-carvers,  and  artisans. 


FIG.  149.— CATHEDRAL  OF  POITIERS. 


Gothic  Architecture.  243 

The  details  of  the  buildings  were  executed  by  their  own 
spontaneous  efforts,  without  set  patterns  or  preconceived 
formulas.  They  built,  carved,  and  designed,  as  they 
went  along.  The  same  genius  and  inventive  talent  which 
are  found  in  the  handiwork  of  antique  domestic  art  (page 
95)  are  equally  common  to  the  Middle  Ages. 

Once  more  the  explanation  must  be  that  in  modern 
times  division  of  labor  and  the  use  of  machinery  have 
destroyed  in  the  working  and  artisan  classes  this  inventive 
and  executive  capacity.  The  stone-cutter  of  to-day  gets 
his  pattern  from  a  contractor,  who  gets  it  from  a  builder, 
who  gets  it  from  an  architect,  who  gets  it  from  a  clerk  in 
his  office.  The  stone-cutter  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  given 
a  capital  to  decorate  and  was  himself  the  artist  who  con- 
ceived and  did  the  whole  thing.  This  means  that  the 
execution  was  vital  and  vigorous,  that  the  pattern  itself 
was  an  inventive  and  creative  effort,  not  a  mechanical 
copy,  and  that  the  details  of  the  buildings  had  the  result- 
ing variety. 

Finally,  when  we  come  back  to  the  point  that  the  archi- 
tect of  the  entire  structure  was  its  master-mason,  we 
understand  how  such  an  architect  could  modify  and  change 
his  plan  and  in  many  senses  build  his  design  as  he  went 
along,  and  how  it  is  that  the  point  of  variety  holds  for 
different  buildings  as  the  necessary  result  of  the  variety  in 
the  parts  of  one. 

We  are  able  to  return  now  to  our  remarks  about  the 
changes  of  style  as  found  in  the  construction  of  one  build- 
ing. What  appear  to  us  varieties  of  style  were  to  the  eye 
of  the  Middle  Ages  natural  varieties  of  detail.  Some 
details  changed  in  each  new  bit  of  work  of  a  given  carver 
or  mason ;  some  changed  because  they  were  done  by 
different  workmen  of  one  time,  and  some  changed  because 


244 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


they  were  done  by  different  workmen  of  different  times. 
We  cannot  too  much  insist  on  the  fact  that  the  thought  of 
"style"  as  such,  was  foreign  to  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
history  of  the  cathedral  falls  into  the  three  grand  divisions 
of  the  timber-roofed  basilica,  the  round-arch  vaulted  build- 
ing, and  the  pointed-arch  vaulted  and  buttressed  building, 
but  these  were  different  modes  of  practical  construction 
successively  called  into  use  by  matter-of-fact  causes,  and 


FIG.  150. — GARGOYLE  AND  GOTHIC  DETAILS.    Notre  Dame,  Paris. 

susceptible  of  endless  variations  of  treatment,  in  which  the 
really  interesting  thing  is  the  independence  of  the  indi- 
vidual example,  not  the  resemblances  of  the  general  type. 
In  the  matter  of  combined  styles  we  have  two  espe- 
cially interesting  cases  in  the  Pisa  Baptistery  (Fig.  127) 
and  the  facade  of  St.  Mark's  at  Venice.  Both  these 
buildings  date  before  the  Gothic  period  in  construction  ; 


FIG  i«  —GOTHIC  PORTAL  SCULPTURE  AT  LONGPONT  (SEINE  ET  OISE), 
FRANCE. 


245 


246  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

both  have  exterior  ornament  in  the  style  of  the  "Italian 
Gothic, ' '  and  yet  no  one  would  imagine  from  their  appear- 
ance that  they  were  not  homogeneous,  artistic  creations. 
In  the  matter  of  medieval  repugnance  to  exact  symmetry, 
we  probably  have  a  very  remarkable  instance  in  the 
famous  Leaning  Tower  of  Pisa,  which  appears  to  have 
been  an  intentional  construction,  in  spite  of  some  opinions 
to  the  contrary. 


CHAPTER  XL 

NORTHERN    GOTHIC    SCULPTURE    AND    PAINTING. 

IT  is  from  an  architectural  standpoint  or  through  archi- 
tectural associations  that  the  northern  Gothic  sculpture  and 
painting  are  best  approached.  The  Gothic  pictures  (mainly 
known  to  us  through  work  of  the  Flemings  and  Germans) 
have  a  crude  and  awkward  appearance  when  transferred  to 
a  modern  picture  gallery  and  divorced  from  the  altars  and 
shrines  of  the  cathedrals  which  they  once  decorated.  It  is 
in  the  few  cases  where  the  old  association  has  been  pre- 
served that  we  can  best  value  their  purpose  and  conse- 
quently their  art.  As  for  the  Gothic  sculpture  of  the 
North,  it  was  so  wholly  architectural  in  association  that  it 
is  impossible  even  to  mention  it  apart  from  the  buildings 
it  decorated. 

We  have  seen  under  what  peculiar  limitations  the  early 
Christian  art  began  its  history  —  limitations  of  prejudice 
against  that  study  of  the  nude  form  and  of  anatomy,  which 
is  indispensable  to  the  science  of  the  artist ;  limitations 
of  indifference  to  physical  beauty  or  appearances  of  natural 
illusion  ;  limitations  of  the  antique  art  decadence  ;  limi- 
tations of  barbarism  ;  and  limitations  of  Byzantine  tradi- 
tion.* The  first  dawning  efforts  of  independence  are  dated 
from  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  f  but  had  not  gone 
far  when  the  Gothic  period  opened.  We  have  seen  that 
barbarism  of  sculptured  design  was  still  general  throughout 


*  Figs.  96,  97,  98,  99,  100. 
fFigs.  130,  131,  132. 


247 


248 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


Italy  in  the  thirteenth  century,*  the  illustration  referred  to 
being  quite  a  fair  type  of  the  best  average  work.  It  should 
be  added,  moreover,  that  the  weakness  of  the  sculptor's 
art  during  the  Romanesque  centuries  lay  especially  in 
the  lack  of  practice  —  its  surviving  monuments  (aside  from 
ivory  carvings)  being  confined  to  a  few  church  bronze  doors 

in  Germany  and  Italy 
and  occasional  sculp- 
tures of  church  por- 
tals, mainly  of  the 
later  twelfth  century. 
The  phenomenal  ex- 
cellence of  those  at 
Freiberg  (Saxony) 
and  Wechselburg  in 
Germany  must  have 
some  local  explanation 
related  to  the  occasion- 
al survival  of  classic 
influences  and  style 
during  the  Middle 
Ages.f  The  greatest 
success  of  Romanesque 
carving  was  in  its  gro- 
tesque and  scroll  orna- 
ments for  capitals,  etc.,  in  which  it  was  thoroughly  successful. 
The  original  deficiencies  of  Christian  plastic  art  in  the 
Middle  Ages  were  never  entirely  overcome  throughout  its 
whole  history,  and  the  comparative  inferiority  of  Gothic 
sculpture  must  therefore  receive  a  threefold  explanation  : 


FIG.  152.— GOTHIC  PORTAL.     Chartres. 


*  Fig.  132. 

f  There  has  become  known  to  specialists,  in  very  recent  years,  the  existence 
of  such  a  classic  revival  in  the  very  center  of  the  Byzantine  period.  See  BAYKT — 
L" Art  Byzantin  in  the  "  Biblioth&que  de  1'Enseignement  des  Beaux  Arts," 


Northern   Gothic  Sculpture  and  Painting.          249 


first,  the  lack  of  a  scientific  study  of  design  in  preceding 
periods,  the  influence,  that  is  to  say,  of  historic  continuity; 
second,  its  purely  decorative  purpose,  in  the  sense  that  its 
works  were  all  connected  with  architecture;  third,  the 
enormous  amount  of  production  by  stone-cutters  (as  dis- 
tinct from  professional  artists)  due  to  the  architectural 
destination. 

It  was  the  fate  of  Gothic  sculpture  in  general  to  suffer 
from  a  difficulty  of  exactly  contrary  nature  to  that  which 
had  crippled  art  in  earlier  medieval  centuries.  Want  of 
practice  was  one  earlier  cause  of  medieval  deficiencies, 
over  -  production  was 
another  and  later 
cause.  The  enormous 
quantity  of  statues  and 
relief -sculpture  lav- 
ished on  single  build- 
ings is  apparent  from 
the  illustrations.*  The 
case  of  Milan  Cathe- 
dral, on  which  there 
are  two  thousand 
statues,  has  been  men- 
tioned. 

Under  these  circum- 
stances rapid  stone- 
mason and  artisan 
work  is  all  that  could 
be  asked,  and  we 

should  rather  admire  the  decorative  success  of  the  average 
workman  than  criticise  his  art  for  not  doing  the  impossible. 
Not  even  the  talent  and  dexterity  of  antiquity  could  have 

Figs.  135,  141,  142,  152,  153. 


250  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

held  the  average  of  work  up  to  the  level  of  standard  pro- 
fessional sculpture,  under  similar  conditions.  In  grasping 
the  religious  sense  and  pith  of  the  story  to  be  told  by 
a  relief,  in  simple  dignity  and  pure  feeling,  in  innocence  of 
expression,  the  Gothic  sculpture  has  no  superior.  Its  sub- 
ordination and  relation  to  a  general  architectural  effect 
must  be  constantly  considered  in  making  proper  conces- 
sions for  the  character  of  execution.  We  see  in  one  of 
the  portals  of  Chartres,  for  instance,  that  the  unnatural 
elongation  of  the  figures  is  a  decorative  accommodation  to 
the  slenderness  of  the  columns  against  which  they  stand 
(Fig.  152).  The  spectacle  of  an  entire  craft  of  stone- 
cutters rising  to  a  high  degree  of  artisan  excellence  in 
sculpture  is  the  interesting  point  in  Gothic  plastic  art. 

As  the  small  figures  of  ivory  carving  admit  of  larger 
reproduction,  the  picture  of  the  English  ivory  carving 
(Fig.  154)  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  average  Gothic 
sculpture  in  larger  dimensions.  It  is  a  triptych,  made  for  a 
bishop  of  Exeter  in  the  fourteenth  century.*  The  ivory 
carvings  of  the  Gothic  in  general  are  also  indicated  by  this 
photograph. 

The  sculptures  of  Chartres,  of  Rheims  and  of  Strassburg 
are,  taken  collectively,  among  the  finest  of  the  whole 
Gothic  time.  For  the  wood-carvings  of  the  pulpits, 
cathedral  choir  stalls  (seats  for  the  clergy),  etc.,  the  late 
Flemish  Gothic  has  many  fine  examples. 

Outside  of  Flemish  and  German  art,  survivals  of  Gothic 
painting  in  the  North  are  almost  unknown.  The  great 
promise  held  out  by  the  grand  and  simple  frescoes  of 
the  Romanesque  cathedrals  was  not  fulfilled,  unless  the 
splendid  stained  glass  pictures  of  the  Gothic  windows  are 

*  The  triptychs  are  small  shrines  for  private  devotion  with  a  central  panel  and 
exterior  wings  hinged  so  as  to  close  over  it  like  doors. 


Northern   Gothic  Sculpture  and  Painting.          251 

included  in  our  view.*  In  actual  fact,  and  because  they 
took  up  almost  the  entire  wall  surface,  these  did  take  the 
place  of  the  earlier  paintings  of  the  North. 

The  art  of  stained  glass  reached  a  perfection  at  this  time 


FIG.  154.— ENGLISH  IVORY  TRIPTYCH.    Fourteenth  Century. 

which    has   never   since   been    rivaled    for   brilliancy   and 
harmony  of  color  and  for  technical  merit.      The  fine  re- 

*  It  has  been  mentioned  that  remains  of  these  Romanesque  frescoes  are  rare 
(page  187)  but  their  ancient  wide  use  is  to  be  taken  for  granted. 


252 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


vivals  which  recent 
nineteenth  century  art 
has  witnessed  in 
stained  glass  are  dis- 
tinctly due  to  the 
study  of  the  old  Gothic 
windows ;  for  during 
the  Renaissance  period 
the  art  was  ultimately 
abandoned.  In  spite  of 
the  beauty  of  many  re- 
cent examples,  it  can- 
not be  said  that  we 
have  yet  reached  the 
excellence  of  the 
ancient  art.  Theory 
and  archaeology  com- 
bined cannot  fill  the 
place  of  the  long  prac- 
tice and  inherited 
technical  traditions, 
which  were  the  stock 
in  trade  of  the  Gothic. 
The  fine  color  sense  of 
individual  experts  may 
go  far  in  individual 
cases,  but  it  cannot 
cope  as  yet  in  its 
average  results  with 
the  art  of  an  entire 

craft  working  all  over  Europe,  such  as  made  the  ancient 

Gothic  windows. 

The  survivals  of  these  works  are  more  fragmentary  than 


FIG.  155. — VIRGIN  MARY  FROM  THE  VAN 
EYCKS'  ALTARPIECE  IN  GHENT. 


Northern   Gothic  Sculpture  and  Painting.          253 

might  be  supposed.  Few  cathedrals  of  France,  Germany, 
or  England  escaped  the  assaults  of  mobs  during  the  time  of 
the  Reformation,  when  Catholic  ecclesiastical  art  appeared 
to  many  to  be  formal  idolatry.  The  windows  were  the 
first  objects  of  attack  and  were  the  most  easily  destroyed  of 
all  Catholic  monuments.  Scattered  survivals  here  and 
there  are  sufficient  to  attest  their  universal  beauty. 

Figure  painting  did  not  flourish  widely  in  the  Gothic 
time.  The  natural  style  of  design  of  the  stained  glass  win- 
dow was  somewhat  like  that  of  the  Byzantine  mosaics  as 
regards  its  methods  and  results  for  other  art.  No  effort 
was  made  to  avoid  the  breaks  in  the  figures  made  by 
the  leaden  framework  which  held  the  segments  of  the  glass 
together.  These  segments  were  treated,  but  in  larger 
dimensions,  in  the  style  of  mosaic.  There  is  consequently 
a  stiffness  and  formalism  of  outlines  which  tended  to  react 
upon  and  cripple  other  surface  design,  in  much  the  same 
way  that  the  mosaics  tended  to  formalize  other  Byzantine 
art  (pages  148,  149). 

Of  all  arts,  figure  painting  is  consequently  that  which 
made  least  progress  in  this  time.  It  was  overshadowed 
by  its  sister  decorative  art,  that  of  the  stained  glass  win- 
dows. It  had  to  contend  with  limited  patronage  and  was 
left  in  England,  France,  and  Spain,  at  least,  to  inferior 
artists.  The  art  was  confined  to  altar  and  panel  pictures, 
in  general  default  of  wall  surfaces.*  Undoubtedly  much 
was  done  that  has  perished,  but  for  modern  survivals 
we  are  almost  absolutely  confined  to  Flanders  and  to 
Germany,  where  the  School  of  Cologne  bordering  on  the 
Netherlands  was  the  most  important. 

It  was  not  till  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  that 
the  art  of  painting  reached  even  relative  success,  but 

*  Remembering  that  the  art  of  the  churches  was  the  controlling  one. 


254 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


in  the  hands  of  the  Van  Eycks  of  Bruges  (two  brothers, 
Hubert  and  Jan),  it  blossomed  in  the  late  fourteenth  and 
early  fifteenth  centuries  into  marvelous  perfection.  Their 
most  renowned  work  is  the  altarpiece  of  St.  Bavo  in 

Ghent  ("The  Ado- 
ration of  the  Lamb"), 
some  of  whose  panels 
are  now  in  the  Berlin 
Museum  (two  others 
in  Brussels). 

Wherever  we  find 
great  geniuses  in  art  a 
substratum  and  sup- 
port of  coworkers  of 
excellence  may  always 
be  assumed.  This 
again  presupposes  a 
considerable  public 
patronage.  Outside  of 
Italy,  the  most  flour- 
ishing country  of 
Europe  in  the  fifteenth 
century  was  Flanders 
(modern  Belgium),  then  a  part  of  the  great  dukedom  of 
Burgundy.  It  was  the  wealth  of  this  country  under  Charles 
the  Bold  and  his  predecessors  which  explains  the  perfection 
of  Flemish  art  at  the  time  of  the  Van  Eycks. 

The  two  countries  in  which  modern  painting  first  devel- 
oped were  Italy  and  Flanders,  because  these  were  the  two 
countries  of  Europe  which  first  realized  the  highest  com- 
mercial and  manufacturing  prosperity. 

Hans  Memling  and  Roger  van  der  Weyden  were  later 
successors  of  the  Van  Eycks  in  the  same  century,  of  some- 


FIG.  156. — RELIQUARY  OF  ST.  URSULA  IN 
GHENT.     Hans  Memling. 


Northern   Gothic  Sculpture  and  Painting.          255 


what  inferior  caliber.  The  work  of  Memling  rivals  in 
delicacy  that  of  the  Van  Eycks,  but  he  did  not  leave 
works  of  the  large  di- 
mensions and  powerful 
execution  which  distin- 
guished the  "Adora- 
tion of  the  Lamb." 
Memling's  most 
famous  works  are  the 
reliquary  chest  of  St. 
Ursula  in  Bruges  (Fig. 
156),  and  an  altarpiece 
in  Danzig,  "The  Last 
Judgment." 

Roger  van  der  Wey- 
den,  who  is  intermedi- 
ate in  time  between  the 
Van  Eycks  and  Mem- 
ling,  has  much  of  the 
power  of  the  former 
but  is  inferior  to  them 
in  finish  and  in  draw- 
ing, his  work  being 
somewhat  hard  and 
angular.  He  is,  how- 
ever, an  excellent 
representative  of  the 
average  quality  of 
northern  Gothic  art  in 

painting,  before  it  was  overshadowed  and  displaced  in  the 
sixteenth  century  by  the  Renaissance  design  of  Italy.  His 
art  is  well  represented  in  the  Berlin  Museum.  One  of  his 
finest  pictures  is  in  Madrid. 


FIG.  157.— DETAIL  OF  THE  RELIQUARY 
IN  GHENT.    Hans  Memling. 


256 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


The  School  of  Cologne,  one  of  the  great  commercial 
centers  ot  the  later  Middle  Ages,  cannot  be  compared 
in  average  results  with  the  Flemish,  but  its  greatest  master, 
Stephen  Lochner,  executed  the  most  beautiful  picture  of 
the  northern  Gothic  art  next  to  the  great  work  of  the  Van 

Eycks.  This  is  the 
"Adoration  of  the 
Magi, ' '  with  flanking 
panels  for  the  stories 
of  St.  Ursula  and  St. 
Gereon,  now  in  the 
choir  of  Cologne 
Cathedral,  the  famous 
Kolner  Dombild.  The 
Gothic  paintings  of 
South  Germany  and  of 
Alsace  are  more  inter- 
esting  for  historical 
associations  and  for 
pious  purpose  than 
for  color  or  draw- 
ing. They  are  at  least 
an  excellent  foil  to 
illustrate  the  high  per- 
fection of  contempo- 
rary Italian  painting. 
The  best  painters  of 
Gothic  South  Ger- 
many were  Martin 
Schongauer  and  Michael  Wohlgemuth.  The  best  collec- 
tions of  early  German  art  are  in  Munich,  Berlin,  and  Co- 
logne. The  masterpieces  of  Flanders  are  found  in  Bruges, 
Ghent,  Antwerp,  Brussels,  and  in  many  foreign  museums. 


FIG.  158.— THE  PRESENTATION.    Munich. 
Roger  van  der  Weyden. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    SECULAR    AND    ITALIAN    GOTHIC    ARCHITECTURE. 

THE  great  comparative  perfection  of  Gothic  painting  in 
the  southern  Netherlands  leads  naturally  to  the  mention  of 
the  magnificent  guild  halls  and  town  halls  of  the  same 
country.  The  finest  secular  buildings  ever  erected  in 
Europe,  outside  of  Italy,  are  the  late  Gothic  public  build- 
ings of  Belgium,  and  once  more  it  is  to  the  commerce  and 
manufactures  and  resulting  great  wealth  and  power  of  the 
country  that  we  must  turn  for  an  explanation.  The  con- 
stant alliance  between  the  English  kings  and  the  Burgun- 
dian  dukedom  during  the  Franco-English  wars  was  owing 
to  the  interests  of  the  wool  trade — the  raw  material  being 
furnished  by  England  and  the  manufactures  by  the  Nether- 
lands. Among  the  magnificent  examples  of  this  secular 
Gothic  are  the  great  halls  of  Bruges,  Ghent,  Brussels, 
Louvain,  and  Oudenarde.  In  France  the  Palais  de  Justice 
(town  hall)  of  Rouen  is  the  finest  corresponding  example. 
In  England  there  are  some  of  the  best  survivals  of  the  old 
feudal  castles  and  of  the  medieval  houses  which  are  occa- 
sionally found  in  all  the  older  towns  of  Europe.  Picturesque 
qualities,  common  sense  construction,  and  bold  originality 
of  individual  arrangement  are  as  apparent  in  these  domestic 
buildings  as  in  the  churches.  The  system  of  exhibiting  the 
beam  construction  in  timbered  houses  is  a  common  one, 
showing  the  constructive  sense  and  frankness  of  the  Gothic. 

In  secular  domestic  buildings  there  is,  however,  no 
country  which  can  rival  Italy  for  the  fourteenth  and 

258 


The  Secular  and  Italian   Gothic  Architecture.      259 

fifteenth  centuries,  and  it  is  especially  in  Venice  that  the 
private  palaces  of  the  nobles  still  shadow  forth  the  role 
played  in  history  by  the  earliest  modern  country  of  modern 
Europe. 

The    most    remarkable    examples   of    the   fortifications 


FIG.  160. — PALAIS  DE  JUSTICE.    Rouen. 

which  were  necessary  in  all  the  medieval  towns  of  Europe 
are  found  at  present  in  Southern  France.  The  fortifica- 
tions of  Carcasonne  and  of  Aigues  Mortes  are  renowned 
instances. 

It  is  in  the  so-called  Italian  Gothic  architecture  that 
medieval  independence  of  formulas  and  systems,  as  well  as 
the  remarkable  independence  of  the  individual  examples, 
are  most  apparent.  The  Italian  Gothic  is  mainly  not 
Gothic  at  all  in  any  characteristic  sense.  In  fact,  its 
main  features  are  quite  antagonistic  to  the  Gothic  sys- 


260 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


FIG.  161.— LUDLOW  CASTLE. 


tern.    The  words  specify  a  period  rather  than  a  style.    This 
period    corresponds    to    that   of    the    northern    Gothic    as 

regards  general  time 
of  beginning  (1200 
A.  D. ),  and  ends  a 
little  earlier  than  1500. 
The  only  first-class 
truly  Gothic  cathedral 
in  all  Italy  is  that  of 
Milan  (Fig.  141), 
which  was  largely 
built  by  German  archi- 
tects, and  in  locality 
stands  nearest  of  im- 
portant towns  to  the  influence  of  the  North.  Even  this 
cathedral  shows  important  deviations  from  the  style  of  the 
northern  Gothic.  Otherwise  the  Church  of  St.  Francis  at 
Assisi  is  one  of  the  rare  instances  of  an  approximately 
northern  style  and  was 
also  built  by  a  north- 
ern architect. 

The  traits  of  Italian 
Gothic  are  best  com- 
prehended by  revert- 
ing to  the  Italian 
Romanesque  and  its 
likewise  exceptional 
position.  We  have 
seen  that  the  basilica 

Construction    and    tim-  FlG.  I62._ AIGUES  MORTES.    Porte  de  la 

ber  ceiling  were  very 

generally  employed  in   Italy,   and  especially  in  Tuscany, 

through  the  Romanesque   period  (Figs.    127,    128,    129, 


The  Secular  and  Italian   Gothic  Architecture.       261 


pages  195,  196)  and  that  the  Romanesque  character  was 
mainly  apparent  in  decorative  traits.  The  reason  for  this 
has  also  been  stated  as  the  more  abundant  supply  of 
ancient  columns  and  the  greater  strength  in  Italy  of 
Byzantine  and  early  Christian  tradition.  It  was  not  till 
the  close  of  the  Romanesque  period  that  vaulted  churches 
became  common  throughout  Italy,  and  in  their  proportions 
they  then  tended  to 
the  character  of  the 
Romanesque  vaulted 
buildings,  but  with  or- 
namental traits  which 
show  some  slight 
northern  Gothic  influ- 
ence. 

The  Cathedrals  of 
Florence,  of  Siena,  of 
Orvieto  (Figs.  165, 
1 66)  are  prominent 
instances.  In  the 
views  of  Florence  and 
of  Orvieto  we  notice  a 
system  of  marble 
paneling  or  of  horizon- 
tal masonry  stripings, 
which  is  common  to 
very  many  Italian  buildings  of  the  time  and  which  is 
derived  from  earlier  buildings  under  Byzantine  influence, 
like  the  Pisa  Cathedral  and  St.  Mark's  at  Venice.  The 
most  superficial  comparison  with  the  exteriors  of  the  north- 
ern Gothic  will  show  how  foreign  this  use  of  colored 
marble  must  be  to  the  accented  rising  lines,  buttresses, 
pinnacles,  and  large  windows  of  the  North. 


FIG.  163.— GOTHIC  DWELLING.     Hildesheim. 


FIG.  164.— MILAN  CATHEDRAL. 


262 


The  Secular  and  Italian   Gothic  Architecture.       263 

In  a  corresponding  sense  it  holds  that  the  window  open- 
ings are  relatively  small,  the  window  tracery  wanting 
or  found  in  simple  elementary  forms,  while  the  buttresses 
are  rudimentary  and  without  pinnacles,  or  else  entirely 
lacking.  The  great  spires  of  the  North  are  also  wanting. 
The  belfries  (as  found  in  Italian  use  they  are  called  "cam- 


FIG.  165. — CATHEDRAL  OF  ORVIKTO. 

paniles")  are  separate  from  the  building  (Fig.  166). 
Gabled  ornaments  appear  as  reminiscences  of  the  northern 
style,  but  they  appear  in  low  relief  and  are  never  projected 
from  the  building,  as  appears  by  comparing  St.  Maclou  at 
Rouen  with  the  Cathedral  of  Orvieto  (Figs.  142,  165). 

The  pointed  arch  is  general,  and  this  is  the  most  distinct 
indication  of  the  Gothic  influence,  but  it  is  only  a  question 


264 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


of  ornamental  details,  not  of  a  system  of  construction.  The 
round  arch  is  found  associated  with  it  (Orvieto),  which  is 
unknown  in  the  North.  Gothic  tracery  in  the  round  arch, 
as  found  in  the  Campo  Santo  of  Pisa  (Fig.  191),  would  be 
impossible  in  the  northern  Gothic. 

All  these  traits  of  the  exteriors  relate  to  a  main  fact  for 
the  interiors,  viz. ,  that  they  lack  the  lofty  proportions  and 
all  the  peculiar  dispositions  of  the  northern  Gothic  build- 
ings. The  interiors  are  wide  and  spacious,  rather  than 


FIG.  166.— CATHEDRAL  OF  FLORENCE. 


lofty  and  narrow,  and  are,  relatively  speaking,  of  low 
proportions.  The  piers  rarely  exhibit  the  clustered  arrange- 
ment of  ribs  alternating  with  deep  furrows  so  common  in 
northern  Gothic. 


The  Secular  and  Italian   Gothic  Architecture.       265 

The  ornamental  details  of  the  Italian  Gothic  offer  a  curi- 
ous mixture  of  anticipations  of  Renaissance  tendencies  in 
the  matter  of  imitating  classic  forms ;  with  foliaged  carv- 
ing derived  from  northern  Gothic,  and  with  survivals  of 


FIG.  167.— DETAIL  FROM  THE  PORTA  DELLA  CARTA.   Venice.   Fifteenth  century. 

Romanesque  ornament,  more  especially  of  those  forms 
which  are  themselves  survivals  of  the  antique.  The  de- 
tail from  Venice  is  an  instance  of  Gothic  foliage  suggested 
by  northern  examples,  but  mingled  with  cherubs  whose 
style  indicates  the  dawning  Renaissance  and  is  quite 
foreign  to  northern  Gothic.  The  detail  from  Pistoja  (Fig. 
1 68)  is  a  case  which  illustrates  the  transmission  of  in- 
herited antique  acanthus  forms  from  the  Romanesque. 

These  various  distinctions  do  not  convey  in  any  sense  a 
criticism  against,   or  depreciation  of,   the   Italian   Gothic, 


266  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

which  is  full  of  peculiar  beauties  and  originality.  They 
are  simply  statements  of  fact  showing  the  versatility  of 
medieval  architecture,  but  above  all  conveying  an  under- 
lying phase  of  general  history.  The  Italians  were  the 
earliest  moderns,  the  first  consciously  to  set  up  the  ideal  of 
modern  civilization  and  consciously  to  antagonize  the 


FIG.  168.— CAPITALS  FROM  THE  BAPTISTERY  OF  PISTOJA.    Fourteenth  century. 

culture  and  feudal  institutions  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Their 
prejudice  against  Gothic  culture  and  Gothic  art,  which 
gave  us  the  word  "Gothic"  (page  201),  and  which  ulti- 
mately shaped  itself  in  the  Renaissance,  shows  its  forecast 
and  prophecy  in  the  so-called  Italian  Gothic,  by  its 
antagonism  or  indifference  to  northern  medieval  forms. 
The  city  of  Rome  has  only  one  church  of  importance 
dating  from  the  Gothic  period  as  regards  original  construc- 
tion— the  Church  of  Santa  Maria  Sopra  Minerva.  The 
Cathedrals  of  Perugia,  Prato,  and  Lucca  belong  to  this 


The  Secular  and  Italian   Gothic  Architecture.         267 


period,  but  they  are  not  buildings  of  special  celebrity.  The 
latter  has  a  famous  Romanesque  facade.  In  North  Italy 
we  find  worthy  of  note  two  great  churches  in  Venice — 
Santa  Maria  dei  Frari  and  San  Giovanni  e  Paolo  ;  the 
Cathedral  of  Verona,  the  Church  of  Santa  Anastasia  in  the 
same  town,  and  the  Cathedrals  of  Ferrara  and  Bologna. 
The  latter  is  a  cold  and  dreary  edifice  of  enormous  size. 
The  churches  in  Venice  just  specified,  although  of  large 
dimension,  owe  their  interest  mainly  to  the  tombs  which 
they  contain,  and  most  of  these  belong  to  dates  much  later 
than  the  churches.  Their  exteriors  are  unpretentious  and 
their  interiors  are  rather  formal  in  effect.  The  Cathedral 
of  Verona  and  its  Church  of  Santa  Anastasia  make  higher 
pretensions  in  the  direction  of  artistic  effect.  The  fagade 
of  the  Cathedral  of  Ferrara  is  an  original  and  curious  crea- 
tion of  the  Italian  Gothic  but  the  interior  has  been  wholly 
modernized. 

Broadly  speaking,  Milan  Cathedral  is  the  important 
great  Gothic  church  of  North  Italy.  The  exterior  is  of 
white  marble,  with  surfaces  broken  by  tracery  and  filagree 
work  and  niches  with  statues.  More  than  two  thousand  of 
these  are  distributed  over  the  building.  The  church  is 
crowned  by  a  forest  of  pinnacles,  which  rise  from  massive 
buttresses.  The  windows  have  the  full  dimensions  of  the 
northern  style.  In  fact,  the  stained  glass  windows  of 
the  choir  are  the  largest  in  the  world.  The  interior  is 
the  largest  in  Europe  next  to  St.  Peter's  at  Rome  and  the 
Cathedral  of  Seville. 

Of  the  cathedrals  already  mentioned  in  Central  Italy,  each 
has  some  peculiar  beauty  and  attraction.  That  of  Florence 
boasts  the  most  gorgeous  exterior  overlay  of  colored  mar- 
ble to  be  seen  in  Europe,  whereas  the  interior  is  at  present 
not  well  lighted  and  is  rather  bare  in  its  appearance. 


268 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


The  Siena  Cathedral  is  famous  for  its  pavement,  the 
most  remarkable  in  Europe.  This  pavement  is  considered 
so  valuable  that  most  of  it  is  covered  by  a  wooden  flooring. 
The  covering  is  removed  on  the  I5th  of  August  to  cele- 
brate the  Feast  of  the  Assumption  and  at  this  time  the 
whole  pavement  can  be  inspected  for  a  week  or  two  follow- 
ing. At  other  times  a  few  sections  near  the  choir  are 
uncovered  for  the  inspection  of  visitors,  at  request.  This 
pavement  is  of  marble,  entirely  covered  with  allegorical 


FIG.  169.— INTERIOR  OF  THE  SIENA  CATHEDRAL. 

figures,  allegorical  subjects,  and  Bible  stories,  carved  on 
the  surface  in  such  a  manner  as  to  resemble  pictures. 
Some  of  the  designs  are  cut  in  outlines,  which  are  filled 
in  with  black  cement.  Other  pictures  are  composed  of 
inlaid  marbles  of  gray  and  other  colors.  The  art  of  several 


The  Secular  and  Italian  Gothic  Architecture.         269 

successive  centuries  appears  here,  but  the  finest  designs  are 
those  of  Domenico  Beccafumi  (sixteenth  century). 

The  Cathedral  of  Orvieto  is  especially  celebrated  for  its 
facade,  whose  sculptured  reliefs  will  be  mentioned  in  a  follow- 
ing chapter. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

ITALIAN    GOTHIC    PAINTING.* 

IT  is  in  the  distinction  between  the  wall  surfaces  which 
were  preserved  by  Italian  buildings  and  those  of  the 
North,  which  were  distributed  into  window  openings  and 
buttresses,  that  we  find  a  connection  with  the  topic  of 
Italian  painting  and  the  architectural  conditions  of  its  de- 
velopment. 

The  Byzantine  and  early  Christian  system  of  church 
building  was  one  of  small  window  openings,  placed  as  far 
as  possible  in  the  upper  portions  of  the  building,  and  of 
large  interior  surfaces  devoted  to  the  gorgeous  color  effects 
of  the  mosaics.  The  Italians  of  the  fourteenth  century 
abandoned  the  mosaics,  but  they  replaced  them  by  wall 
frescoes  (paintings  on  plaster),  and  their  system  of  wall 
surfaces  required  for  the  frescoes  was  the  same  as  that 
required  for  mosaics.  It  is  here  that  the  real  break  with 
the  style  of  the  North  is  apparent.  The  northern  buttress 
was  essentially  necessary  as  the  support  of  a  vaulted  ceil- 
ing which  otherwise  lacked  the  necessary  supporting  walls  ; 
for  the  development  of  the  window  openings  amounted  to 
the  absence  of  the  wall.  In  other  words,  the  demand  for 
frescoes  explains  the  Italian  Gothic  in  so  far,  at  least,  as 
the  preservation  of  the  wall  surface  and  the  absence  of 
large  window  openings  are  concerned. 

The  system  of  stained  glass  decoration  shows  the  ro- 

*  It  must  be  noticed  that  the  photographs  used  to  illustrate  this  topic  have  the 
merit  of  being  taken  directly  from  the  originals,  but  all  reproductions  lacking  the 
original  colors  are  necessarily  inadequate. 

270 


Italian   Gothic  Painting. 


271 


mantic  and  poetical  exaltation  of  the  northern  artistic 
spirit.  The  effects  of  the  northern  Gothic  are  mysterious 
and,  so  to  speak,  transcendental.  The  spirit  of  the  Italian 
was  cooler  and  clearer,  less  addicted  to  mystery  and 
romantic  effect — more 
disposed  to  explicit 
story-telling  by  pic- 
torial art  than  to  mys- 
terious contrasts  of 
light  and  shade  in  nave 
and  aisles.  The  in- 
teriors of  the  Italian 
churches  are  sufficient- 
ly lighted  by  normal 
window  openings  of 
small  dimensions. 
Otherwise  the  church 
walls,  and  generally 
also  the  walls  of  the 
public  buildings,  were 
decorated  with  pictures 
on  the  plaster  surfaces. 

The  history  of  Italian 
painting,  which  between  the  fourteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  produced  all  the  greatest  works  of  modern  art  in 
this  department,  is  essentially  a  history  of  wall  painting, 
and  the  conditions  of  its  perfection  and  greatness  are  all  to 
be  sought  and  found  in  this  point  of  departure. 

As  late  as  the  sixteenth  century  all  the  most  important 
pictures  were  wall  pictures.  Even  when  canvas  and  oils 
were  used,  as  in  Venice,  in  preference  to  painting  on  a 
plaster  surface  it  was  still  wall  decoration  which  was  the 
main  purpose  of  the  art.  The  canvases  were  often  at- 


FIG.  170.— THE  UPPER  CHURCH  OF  ST. 
FRANCIS.    Assisi. 


272 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


tached  to  the  walls  and  made  a  part  of  their  architectural 
existence.  Panel  pictures,  that  is  to  say,  detached  framed 
pictures,  were  a  subordinate  matter  and  even  these  were 
designed,  in  a  great  majority  of  cases,  for  definite  places — 

for  chapels,  churches, 
shrines,  altar  pic- 
tures, and  the  like. 
Above  all,  the  dex- 
terity and  the  talent 
of  the  artist  were  first 
developed  by  his 
practice  as  a  wall 
painter.  The  com- 
position of  Raphael's 
Madonnas  is  deter- 
mined, for  instance, 
by  the  methods  which 
he  practiced  as  a 
fresco  artist. 

It  must  be  con- 
sidered, then,  what 
was  involved  for 
Italian  art  in  this  one 
grand  fact  of  its  orig- 
inal use  and  main 
purpose.  First,  it 
follows  that  the  pic- 
tures were  made  for 
public  uses  and  for 
public  inspection,  and  it  follows  that  they  were  made  to 
meet  a  public  demand.  The  commissions  were  large  in 
scale  and  in  the  amount  of  work  to  be  done  by  a  given 
artist,  because  large  wall  surfaces  had  to  be  decorated, 


FIG.  171. — CIMABUE.    THE  MADONNA. 
Academy,  Florence. 


Italian   Gothic  Painting. 


273 


and  many  artists  were  employed  for  a  given  building. 
The  artist  had  to  meet  public  criticism  when  he  failed 
and  he  received  public  approbation  when  he  succeeded. 
It  also  follows  that  his  subjects  were  substantially  dictated 
by  public  choice  as  regards  their  general  matter  and  char- 
acter and  that  these  subjects  were  in  advance  grateful  to 
the  public. 

This  last  point  is  the  elementary  one  above  all  others. 
Every  artist  who  is  in 
advance  doubtful  as  to 
whether  his  subject 
matter  will  attract  an 
audience  or  a  buyer 
works  under  a  disad- 
vantage. This  is,  in 
general,  the  weakness 
of  the  modern  artist, 
who  mainly  works  for 
private  buyers.  His 
pictures  are  painted  on 
speculation  as  regards 
the  choice  of  a  subject. 
In  Italy  the  artist  was 
told  in  advance  what 
was  wanted,  as  an  art- 
ist always  naturally  will 
be  told  when  he  re- 
ceives a  public  com- 
mission. More  than 
that,  the  choice  of  subjects  was  limited  by  tradition  and  by 
the  purposes  of  the  art,  and  the  artist  was  familiar  in  ad- 
vance with  most  that  were  likely  to  be  suggested.  These 
were  the  stories  of  Genesis,  the  lives  of  the  saints  and 


FIG.  172.— Duccio.    THE  MADONNA. 
Perugia. 


274 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


apostles,  the  great  historical  turning  points  in  the  history 
of  the  church,  the  life  of  the  Savior,  the  events  of  his  Pas- 
sion, the  history  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

Let  it  not  be  considered  that  this  was  a  narrow  or  limited 
range  of  choice.  For  the  conceptions  of  the  Middle  Ages 
the  Bible  was  an  epitome  of  the  life  of  individual  man  from 
the  cradle  to  the  grave  and  an  epitome  of  the  history 

of  the  human  race.  It 
was  the  business  of  the 
artist  to  illustrate  this 
point  of  view,  to  make 
it  clear  to  the  people. 
They  themselves,  how- 
ever, were  the  motive 
power  ;  the  choice  of 
subjects  was  made  be- 
cause they  expected 
and  demanded  it.  To 
aid  and  suggest  to  the 
artist  was  the  business 


FIG.  173. — GIOTTO.    ST.  JOACHIM  DRIVEN  FROM 
THE  TEMPLE.     Arena  Chapel,  Padua. 


of  every  man  of  learn- 
ing and  every  man  of 
thought  —  monks , 
clergy,  and  public  officers  of  the  state  being  his  direct  em- 
ployers. Finally,  all  the  genius,  talent,  invention,  and 
originality  which  the  artist  possessed  himself  were  in  his 
favor  and  contributed  to  the  success  of  the  general  result. 
He  had,  moreover,  the  advantage  of  working  for  a 
definite  place.  His  picture  was  not  transported  from  a 
studio  of  one  light  to  be  hung  in  a  gallery  with  another 
light.  It  was  not  exposed  to  the  vicissitudes  of  chance 
sales  or  the  gazers  of  shop  windows  and  tossed  about 
among  the  hanging  committees  of  picture  exhibitions. 


Italian   Gothic  Painting.  275 

The  modern  painter,  as  such,  is  an  itinerant,  a  bohemian. 
In  America,  at  least,  he  lives  on  sufferance,  contending 
with  a  mistaken  preference  for  foreign  pictures,  with  the 
whims  of  the  rich,  the  fashions  of  the  hour,  and  the  great 
difficulty  of  earning  his  bread.  The  Italian  painter  was 
a  respected  man  of  business,  a  well-to-do  tradesman,  a  suc- 
cessful artisan  —  in  a  word,  a  recognized  and  respected 
member  of  society,  the  schoolmaster  of  his  age,  the 
Sunday-school  superintendent,  the  historian,  the  man  of 
letters,  and  the  poet.  All  this  was  involved  in  the  topics 
of  Italian  art  in  an  age  when  printing  was  unknown,  when 
manuscript  books  were  dear,  when  teaching  through  the 
eye  and  by  object  lessons  was  more  than  a  theory  of 
kindergartens. 

Add  to  these  conditions  the  material  considerations  con- 
nected with  the  scale  of  the  designs  and  the  method  of 
their  execution.  The  paintings  were  rapidly  executed  in 
light  but  warm  colors,  with  distinct  outlines  and  summary 
indication  of  details,  on  damp  plaster.*  When  the  plaster 
was  dry,  work  was  impossible.  A  given  surface  was 
plastered  each  day  and  so  the  work  went  on.  An  ulti- 
mate dexterous  rapidity  in  outline  drawing  was  one  result 
of  this  fresco  art.  The  large  scale  of  the  pictures  with  life- 
size  figures  also  demanded  bold  and  simple  compositions. 

Finally,  we  have  to  consider  the  natural  development  of 
technical  improvements  and  devices  in  any  art  which  is 
much  practiced  because  much  in  demand.  The  amount  of 
commissions  and  the  number  of  artists  engaged  on  them 
are  grand  points  in  estimating  the  difference  between 
Italian  painting  and  our  own.  Some  of  the  simplest 
technical  methods  of  mixing  paints  and  colors  have  been 
lost  since  the  sixteenth  century.  No  modern  painter  can 

*  Hence  the  word  "  fresco,"  or  painting  on  fresh  plaster. 


276 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


tell  how  Titian  mixed  his  colors  or  what  chemical  composi- 
tion of  pigments  he  employed.     Wherever  there  is  large 

demand  for  any  art,  it 
naturally  rises  to  the 
level  of  the  demand.  In 
so  far  as  the  public  at 
large  is  more  important 
than  a  private  individ- 
~  ,  ,  ual,  in  so  far  was  the 
Italian  painting  ulti- 
mately superior  to  our 
own. 

The  favorable  c  o  n  - 
ditions  under  which  the 
modern  art  of  music  is 
practiced  offer  the  easi- 
est means  of  understand- 
ing the  perfection  of  Italian  painting.  Given  a  superior 
voice  and  the  modern  singer  is  certain  of  a  well-paid 
career.  Given  a  distinct  musical  talent  and  at  least  a 
well-paid  daily  occupation  is  secure.  The  demand  creates 
the  supply,  the  supply  makes  practice,  and  practice  makes 
perfection. 

Doubtless  the  Italian  had  a  native  genius  and  talent 
for  art,  but  there  were  centuries  when  it  lay  dormant 
for  want  of  patronage.  Once  more,  then,  we  must  come 
back  to  the  history  of  the  times  and  the  questions  of 
politics,  of  civilization,  and  of  commerce. 

In  the  earlier  Middle  Ages,  Italy  had  been  crushed  by 
foreign  barbarism.  The  nearer  the  German  was  to  his 
original  home  and  original  surroundings,  the  better  use  he 
ultimately  made  of  Roman  civilization.  It  was  in  Germany 
itself  and  in  the  Romanesque  art  of  the  eleventh  and 


FIG,  174.— GIOTTO.     ST.  JOACHIM  ACCOM- 
PLISHES THE  SACRIFICE.    Arena 
Chapel,  Padua. 


Italian   Gothic  Painting. 


277 


twelfth  centuries  that  we  have  found  the  finest  works  of 
early  medieval  art.  In  Italy  the  Lombards  and  Ostrogoths 
were  corrupted  by  luxury  without  being  refined  by  civiliza- 
tion. In  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  Italy  at  large  was 
the  most  barbarous  country  in  Europe.*  Saracenic  incur- 
sions from  Sicily,  constant  German  invasions  from  the 
North,  f  and  the  violence  of  the  Northmen  in  Naples 
(eleventh  century)  all  depressed  her  condition. 

From  this  depressed  condition  she  was  first  distinctly 
raised  by  the  popes  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
who  carried  their  contest  with  the  emperors  (page  199)  to 
a  successful  issue  and 
in  securing  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Lom- 
bard towns  of  North 
Italy  |  from  the  em- 
peror, naturally  se- 
cured the  liberties  of 
the  more  southern 
states. 

From  this  time  date 
the  independence  and 
prosperity  of  Italy  at 
large,  a  prosperity 
which  had  previously 
reached  astounding 
proportions  in  Pisa  and  Genoa  (eleventh  century)  and  at 
still  earlier  times  in  Ravenna  and  in  Venice. 


FIG.  175.— GIOTTO.    BIRTH  OF  THE  VIRGIN. 
Arena  Chapel,  Padua. 


*  With  important  exceptions  for  Ravenna,  Venice,  and  some  cities  of  the  South, 
like  Amalfi  and  Salerno. 

fThe  emperors  were  always  crowned  at  Rome  till  the  thirteenth  century.  The 
coronation  was  always  attended  by  the  march  of  a  German  army,  which  unsettled 
and  disturbed  the  country  at  large,  and  which  very  much  partook  of  the  character 
of  an  invasion. 

\  Battles  of  Alessandria  and  Legnano.  Submission  of  Henry  IV.  at  Canossa 
and  of  Barbarossa  at  Venice.  Leading  popes,  Gregory  VII.  and  Alexander  VI. 


278  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

The  political  constitution  of  Italy  was  that  of  a  series  of 
independent  civic  states.  The  feudal  system  had  never 
taken  deep  root  in  Italy,  and  when  civilization  revived  the 
commerce  and  manufactures  of  the  towns  did  not  have 
to  struggle  with  the  exactions  and  oppressions  of  the  feudal 
barons,  which  in  Northern  Europe  obliged  the  cities  to 
ally  themselves  with  the  monarchy. 

The  civilization  of  Italy  reached  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  a  phenomenal  perfection,  rivaling  in 
all  essential  points  that  of  the  later  moderns,  which  has 
been  almost  entirely  derived  from  it.  The  inventions  of 
the  nineteenth  century  relate  generally  to  enlargements 
in  the  area  of  civilization  or  increase  in  its  population. 
The  various  applications  of  new  machinery  relate  to  the 
amount  of  production,  not  to  the  quality.  The  silks,  laces, 
and  velvets  of  Italy  made  in  the  fourteenth  century  were 
fully  equal  to  ours.  The  same  point  would  apply  to  all 
textile  fabrics,  implements,  and  utensils,  furniture,  pottery, 
glass,  and  the  ordinary  luxuries  of  modern  life.  The  vari- 
ous applications  of  steam  and  electricity  relate  to  increased 
speed  of  communication  or  intercourse  required  by  larger 
areas,  but  they  do  not  affect  the  quality  of  individual 
culture.  Italy  mainly  possessed,  on  a  small  scale,  in  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  the  essential  features 
of  modern  civilization  as  regards  luxuries  and  comforts. 

Although  scientific  information  was  far  inferior  to  our 
own,  this  was  perhaps  fully  compensated  by  a  versatility  of 
talents  and  capacities  in  the  individual  man,  made  possible 
by  the  small  area  of  his  surroundings,  to  which  we  can 
offer  no  parallel.  There  are,  for  instance,  no  modern 
artists  who  unite  in  one  person  the  capacities  of  an  en- 
gineer, poet,  highly  educated  man  of  letters,  architect, 
painter,  and  sculptor,  and  who  have  made  actual  test 


Italian   Gothic  Painting. 


279 


of  capacity  in  all  these  directions.  Leonardo  da  Vinci 
and  Michael  Angelo  did  all  these  things  and  did  them 
all  equally  well.  Da  Vinci  was  also  an  accomplished 
musician  who  knew  how  to  make  his  own  instruments 


FIG.  176.— GIOTTO.    MARY'S  SUITORS  RECEIVING  THE  RODS  FROM  THE 
HIGH  PRIEST.    Arena  Chapel,  Padua. 

and  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  science  of  his  day. 
These  cases  of  versatility  are  paralleled  by  other  notori- 
ous cases  which  illustrate  a  general  versatility  in  the  nation 
at  large.  Our  own  scientific  advances  have  obliged  men  to 
specialize  their  talents  and  to  narrow  their  field.  Without 
wishing  to  depreciate  the  importance  of  our  own  advance. 


280  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

we  must  be  willing  to  concede  the  advantages  enjoyed  by 
earlier  periods  in  contrast  with  our  own. 

As  a  result  of  the  unconscious  education  of  the  faculties 
which  is  reached  by  a  variety  of  occupations,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  average  Italian  of  the  fifteenth  century  was, 
at  least,  fully  the  mental  and  physical  equal  of  the  modern 
in  any  department  of  daily  life.  His  possible  scientific 
knowledge  was  less,  but  his  actual  education  was  more 
symmetrical  and  more  comprehensive,  because  it  was  less 
specialized  and  more  versatile,  whereas  versatility  in  our 
day  is  generally  supposed  to  indicate  superficiality  and 
to  be  inconsistent  with  thoroughness. 

The  perfection  of  Italian  art  is  also  involved  in  this 
summary  of  the  conditions  of  daily  life.  The  Italian  artist 
was  sometimes  a  recognized  statesman,  politician,  and 
general.  Michael  Angelo  was  the  captain  general  of  his 
state  during  the  siege  of  Florence  in  1529,  and  is  the 
inventor  of  the  system  of  fortifications  usually  attributed  to 
Vauban  in  the  time  of  Louis  XIV.  of  France.  Leonardo 
da  Vinci  was  the  military  engineer  of  Caesar  Borgia  and 
wrote  the  first  treatise  on  the  use  of  artillery.  Raphael 
was  offered  the  rank  of  a  cardinal  and  was  sculptor 
and  architect  as  well  as  painter  ;  Benvenuto  Cellini  was 
musician,  goldsmith,  sculptor,  and  cannoneer.  Giotto  the 
painter  was  an  equally  great  architect  and  sculptor  and  a 
personal  friend  of  the  poet  Dante.  In  all  these  cases  the 
varied  activity  and  experience  of  the  artist  reacted  on  his 
art  and  the  man  did  what  he  was. 

As  regards  the  peculiar  distinctions  of  various  Italian 
states,  something  has  also  to  be  said.  Milan  was  the 
capital  of  the  fertile  agricultural  districts  of  the  North. 
Genoa,  Venice,  and  Pisa  were  great  in  commerce.  The 
Universities  of  Bologna  and  Padua  were  famous  centers  of 


Italian   Gothic  Painting. 


281 


learning.  Florence  was  the  home  of  bankers  and  manu- 
facturers. Ferrara  was  a  model  of  administrative  politics. 
Siena,  Perugia,  and  Urbino  were  all  important  commercial 
and  manufacturing  republics.  These  were  the  various 
great  centers  of  Italian  art.  Rome  and  Naples  were  less 
active.  Rome  was  a 
center  to  which  fin- 
ished talent  was  natur- 
ally drawn  and  the 
native  artists  could  not 
vie  with  the  genius  of 
the  whole  of  Italy, 
which  was  always  at 
the  call  of  the  popes. 
Naples  did  not  escape 
from  foreign  rule 
through  the  entire 
Middle  Ages. 

From  all  these  vari- 
ous ways  of  conceiving 
the  culture  of  Italy  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries, 
we  move  to  the  actual  monuments  of  the  art  of  painting 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  which  was  the  first  in  which 
Italy  achieved  even  relative  perfection  in  this  art.  The 
fifteenth  century,  as  belonging  to  the  Italian  Renaissance, 
is  excluded  from  the  topic  of  this  book  as  far  as  Italy  is 
concerned. 

The  greatest  early  painters  of  Italy  were  Duccio  of  Siena 
and  Cimabue  and  Giotto  of  Florence,  but  these  men  of 
genius,  it  must  be  remembered,  were  not  isolated  in  their 
greatness.  Successful  genius  means  helpers,  assisters, 
supporters,  rivals,  followers,  and  predecessors.  Among 
these  men  Cimabue  is  distinguished  as  the  first  great 


FIG.  177.— GIOTTO.    THE  NATIVITY  OF  CHRIST. 
Arena  Chapel,  Padua. 


282 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


innovator  on  Byzantine  methods.  Duccio's  genius  may 
be  fairly  compared  with  Giotto's  as  an  expert  in  design, 
but  the  latter  is  better  known  for  his  wider  influence  and 
wider  personal  activity  and  not  less  remarkable  for  his 
original  and  thoughtful  genius  of  conception. 

Photographs  and  engravings  are  a  poor  substitute  for 
Italian  frescoes,  but  even  in  face  of  the  originals  we  have 
still  to  make  many  concessions  to  the  shortcomings  of  the 
first  efforts  of  modern  painting,  and  for  the  deficiencies 
involved  in  the  break  with  the  traditions  of  Byzantine 
mosaic  which  had  been  the  traditional  authority  of  Italian 
art  for  nine  entire  centuries.  Cimabue  himself  designed 

one   of   these  mosaics 
in  Pisa. 

The  fourteenth  cen- 
tury frescoes  must  be 
judged  first  as  compo- 
sitions in  color  and  as 
wall  decorations  in 
color.  From  this  point 
of  vi  ew  they  are 
thoroughly  successful. 
They  must  be  judged 
next  as  serious  and 
faithful  efforts  to  realize 
the  inner  meaning  and 
significance  of  the 
Bible  stories.  From 
this  point  of  view  they  are  thoroughly  successful.  As  arch- 
itectural compositions  in  outline  they  are  also  fine  efforts. 
That  they  are  often  quaint  in  details  and  inadequate  in  ex- 
ecution of  realistic  accessories  must  be  readily  admitted. 
They  cannot,  however,  be  justly  judged  in  this  par- 


FIG.  178. — GIOTTO.    THE  FLIGHT  INTO 
EGYPT.    Arena  Chapel,  Padua. 


Italian   Gothic  Painting. 


283 


ticular  from  the  standpoint  of  a  realistic  nineteenth  century 
painting.  Many  decorative  considerations  assert  them- 
selves when  pictures  are  painted  on  plaster  walls,  which  do 
not  hold  for  smaller  canvas  pictures  executed  in  oil  color. 
Details  cannot  be 
elaborated  on  such  a 
surface  and  with  the 
mediums  used  for  mix- 
ing the  colors,  nor  is 
it  desirable  that  they 
should  be.  Suggestion 
and  slight  indication  of 
accessories  were  suf- 
ficient for  an  art  where 
the  point  and  moral, 
or  fact,  of  the  story 
were  the  main  thing 
and  nature  was  only 
the  means  to  an  end.  Due  concessions  must  be  also  made 
to  the  general  attitude  of  medieval  Christian  art  as  de- 
termined by  tradition  and  historic  conditions. 

The  surviving  remains  of  Cimabue's  art  are  confined  to 
the  mosaic  in  the  apse  of  the  Pisa  Cathedral  (much  injured 
by  later  restoration),  to  a  few  panel  paintings,  and  to 
some  wall  pictures  in  the  Church  of  St.  Francis  at  Assisi. 
The  most  celebrated  panel  picture  is  the  one  now  hanging 
in  the  right  transept  of  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria  Novella 
at  Florence.  This  altarpiece,  a  painting  of  the  Madonna 
surrounded  by  angels,  is  an  interesting  mixture  of  Byzan- 
tine qualities  with  the  artist's  own,  independent  modifica- 
tions of  style.  These  modifications  appeared  so  extraor- 
dinary to  his  own  generation  that  the  painting  was  borne 
in  triumph  from  the  painter's  studio  to  the  church, 


FIG.  179.— GIOTTO.    CHRIST  CROWNED  WITH 
THORNS.    Arena  Chapel,  Padua. 


284  Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 

followed  by  the  whole  population  of  the  city.  An  altar- 
piece  of  less  importance  is  preserved  in  the  Academy  of 
Florence. 

In  the  Church  of  St.  Francis  at  Assisi  there  are  more 
important  specimens  of  this  painter's  art.  His  wholly 
authentic  pictures  are  those  in  the  two  sections  of  the 
vaulting  of  the  upper  church  ;  of  the  evangelists  and  fathers 
of  the  church.  St.  Francis  is  a  double  church,  one  church 
being  built  over  another.  The  construction  is  placed 
against  the  side  of  a  hill  and  the  lower  church  is  entered  at 
the  side.  Both  portions  of  the  interior  are  covered  with 
frescoes  by  the  predecessors,  contemporaries,  and  pupils  of 
Cimabue  and  Giotto.  In  many  cases  the  attributions  of 
artists'  names  are  doubtful,  and  in  many  others  the  pictures 
are  damaged  or  even  almost  destroyed.  Yet,  as  a  whole, 
the  Church  of  St.  Francis  at  Assisi  is  a  unique  case  of  sur- 
vival as  regards  the  general  effect  of  architectural  medieval 
paintings  in  a  large  church  interior.  It  has  no  parallel  in 
Europe. 

In  face  of  this  survival  one  begins  to  appreciate  the 
destruction  of  the  old  Italian  frescoes  elsewhere.  This 
destruction  was  mainly  the  work  of  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance, which  preferred  even  whitewashed  walls  to  medieval 
paintings.  It  is  recorded,  for  instance,  that  the  marriage 
of  a  daughter  of  a  grand  duke  of  Tuscany  in  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century  was  celebrated  by  whitewashing  the 
old  frescoes  in  the  Cathedral  of  Florence. 

Cimabue  was  a  native  of  Florence  and  flourished  be- 
tween 1240  and  1302,  according  to  the  usually  received 
dates.  His  art  thus  preceded  and  laid  the  foundation  for 
that  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

The  fourteenth  century  Italian  painting  at  large  may  be 
fairly  illustrated  from  the  work  of  Giotto.  No  artist  sur- 


286 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


passed  him  in  technical  proficiency  during  the  entire  cen- 
tury. He  was  never  surpassed  in  solemnity,  in  seriousness, 
in  religious  feeling,  and  in  original  power.  The  artists  of 
his  time  were  frequently  his  equals  and  worthy  rivals  in  in- 
dividual works.  The  fourteenth  century  painting  has,  then, 
these  following  general  qualities  :  It  did  not  attempt  facial 


FIG.  181. — THE  CAMPO  SANTO.     Pisa. 


portraiture,  it  did  not  elaborate  backgrounds  or  landscape 
details,  it  did  not  attempt  perspective.  The  action  and 
gesture  are  treated  with  more  or  less  success,  according  to 
the  individual  genius  and  talent.  The  idea  was  the  main 
thing.  The  artist  was  satisfied  when  he  had  conveyed  it, 
and  the  public  was  satisfied  when  it  grasped  it. 

The  universally  quoted  monument  of  Giotto's  greatness 


Italian   Gothic  Painting.  287 

t 

is  the  fresco  decoration  of  a  chapel  in  Padua,  which  was  be- 
gun in  1303 — the  Chapel  of  Santa  Maria  dell'  Arena. 
There  are  also  important  works  by  this  artist  in  Florence 
(Church  of  Santa  Croce),  in  Assisi  (Church  of  St.  Fran- 
cis), and  elsewhere.  The  School  of  Giotto  and  of  the 
fourteenth  century  at  large  is  otherwise  best  known 
through  the  frescoes  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Spaniards  in 
Florence  (Church  of  Maria  Novella),  and  of  the  Campo 
Santo  of  Pisa.  This  last  spot  is  the  burial  ground  of  the 
city,  reserved  for  distinguished  citizens  and  surrounded  by 
cloisters  on  whose  inner  walls  is  a  long  series  of  famous 
paintings,  among  which  the  most  noted  are  ' '  The  Triumph 
of  Death"  and  "The  Last  Judgment."  It  was  also  in 
Pisa  that  the  Italian  sculptor's  art  began  its  history  and 
that  its  earliest  great  success,  and  therefore  in  many  senses 
most  famous  monument,  is  found.  This  will  be  noticed  in 
our  following  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

ITALIAN    GOTHIC    SCULPTURE. 

THE  contrast  with  the  Gothic  art  of  the  North  which  has 
been  drawn  so  far  continues  in  the  history  of  sculpture. 
The  Milan  Cathedral  is  the  only  one  in  Italy  which  rivals 


FIG.  182.— DETAIL  FROM  THE  BRONZE  DOORS  OF  TROJA  CATHEDRAL. 
Eleventh  century. 

the  profusion  of  northern  Gothic  sculpture  as  used  for 
architectural  decoration,  and  its  statues,  themselves  individ- 
ually of  minor  merit,  are  in  no  sense  connected  with  the 
history  of  Italian  art.  In  amount  of  production  the  Italian 
Gothic  sculpture  cannot  for  a  moment  be  compared  with 

288 


Italian   Gothic  Sculpture. 


289 


that  of  Northern  Europe.  It  was  also  distinctly  later  in  its 
earliest  development,  but  in  the  artistic  and,  so  to  speak, 
professional  quality  of  its  more  limited  number  of  produc- 
tions, it  stands  in  reputation,  and  in  fact,  far  higher. 
There  is  no  Gothic  sculpture  outside  of  Italy  which  can  be 
considered  aside  from  its  architectural  connection.  Sculp- 
ture, for  its  own  sake,  for  the  sake  of  form  and  science,  is 
distinctly  Italian  in  its  origin  as  far  as  modern  times  are 
concerned.  The  northern  Gothic  sculpture  had  no  se- 
quence of  perfected  development.  It  rather  retrograded 
in  its  later  phases  and 
was  finally  supplanted  in 
the  time  of  the  Renais- 
sance by  the  influences 
of  its  Italian  rival. 

We  are  generally  in 
the  habit  of  dating  the 
rise  of  Italian  sculpture 
from  the  latter  part  of 
the  thirteenth  century 
and  from  the  work  of 
Niccolo  of  Pisa,  but  in 
those  territories  of 
Southern  Italy  which 
have  been  so  far  much 
neglected,  not  only  by 
tourists  but  also  by 
specialists,  there  are 
many  indications  of  an  earlier  progressive  movement. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  the  father  of  Niccolo  was  a  native 
of  Apulia  (Southeast  Italy),  which  points  in  the  same 
direction.  It  thus  appears  probable  that  Niccolo' s  art 
rests  on  a  south  Italian  basis.  It  is  well  known  that  the 


FIG.  183.— DETAIL  FROM  THE  EASTER  CANDEL- 
ABRUM OF  GAETA.     THF  WOMEN  AT  THE 
SEPULCHER  ;  THE  DAY  OF  PENTECOST. 


290 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


coast  territories  of  Southern  Italy  were  largely  settled 
by  a  Byzantine-Greek  population,  that  they  were  long 
ruled  by  the  Byzantine  Empire,  and  that  cities  like 
Salerno,  Amain,  and  Bari  were,  by  virtue  of  their  com- 
merce with  East  Rome,  among  the  very  earliest  important 
centers  of  medieval  Italian  culture.  This  south  Italian 
culture  was  crippled  or  destroyed  by  the  raids  of  the 
Saracens.  The  Normans,  who  were  called  in  by  the  By- 
zantine power  in  the  eleventh  century  to  repel  the  Sara- 
cens, were  ultimately  successful  in  rendering  this  service, 

but  meantime  the  high 
civilization  of  this  coun- 
try had  been  brought 
low  and  the  Norman 
period  which  succeeded 
the  Byzantine  in  South 
Italy  was  generally  of  a 
ruder  character.  We 
are  thus  led  to  under- 
stand the  oversight  or 
neglect,  in  rarely  visited 
localities,  of  certain 
monuments  of  this  Italo- 
Byzantine  culture  which 
undoubtedly  anticipate 
the  development  of 
Italian  art,  usually  as- 

rrihpH    tn    th 


FIG.  184.—  PULPIT  OF  THE  PISA  BAPTISTERY. 
By  Niccolo  Pisano. 

teenth  century.     The 

monuments  in  question  are  pulpits,  Easter  candelabra,  and 
church  doors  of  bronze.  (The  Easter  candelabrum  was 
used  to  hold  an  enormous  wax  taper  at  the  services  of 
Easter  and  is  a  marble  candle-stick  about  ten  feet  high.  ) 


Italian   Gothic  Sculpture. 


291 


The  bronze  church  doors  in  question  are  those  of  Ra- 
vello,  Beneventum,  Troja,  and  Trani.  Similar  ones  of  the 
Cathedral  of  Monreale  near  Palermo  are  of  ruder  work- 
manship. These  works  date  from  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries.  Some  of  them  are  said  to  have  been  executed 


FIG.  185.— DETAIL  OF  THE  PISA  PULPIT.    THE  CRUCIFIXION. 

in  Constantinople.  They  are  decorated  with  compositions, 
in  small  panels,  of  Scripture  subjects  and  with  figures  of 
the  saints,  etc.  In  one  case,  that  of  Troja,  the  figure  com- 
positions are  wanting,  but  the  dragons  holding  the  rings 
which  serve  as  door-knockers  and  the  decorative  lion  heads 
are  the  finest  works  of  decorative  design  in  metal  which 
have  survived  from  the  Middle  Ages.  The  doors  of  Ben- 
eventum are  the  most  remarkable  for  vigor  and  uncon- 
ventional action.  Every  trace  of  Byzantine  formalism 
seems  to  have  disappeared  from  these  designs. 


292 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


The  most  remarkable  Easter  candelabrum  is  that  of 
Gaeta.  After  it  may  be  mentioned  those  of  Capua  and 
Salerno.  Another  fine  example  is  in  the  Capella  Palatina 
at  Palermo.  These  (marble)  candelabra  are  decorated 
with  reliefs  of  Bible  subjects,  showing  great  veracity  of 
action  and  even  some  suggestion  of  a  study  of  the  nude 
form. 

Belonging  to  the  same  category  as  regards  quality  of 
design  are  the  pulpit  carvings  of  the  Cathedrals  of  Ravello, 
Salerno,  Troja,  and  Sessa  Aurunca.  At  Troja  and  Sessa 
Aurunca  we  find  marble  relief  panels  decorating  one  or 


FIG.  1 86.— FACADE  OF  THE  ORVIETO  CATHEDRAL,  SHOWING  ITS 
RELIEF-SCULPTURE. 


more  of  the  sides  of  the  pulpit.  At  Ravello  and  Salerno 
(where  the  cathedral  possesses  two  pulpits)  the  capitals  of 
the  supporting  columns  and  the  pulpit  angles  show  figure 
designs  of  a  most  remarkable  quality  for  the  given  period 
(middle  of  the  thirteenth  century). 


Italian  Gothic  Sculpture. 


293 


All  these  scattered  and  neglected  monuments  point  to 
one  lesson,  that  of  the  continuity  of  history  and  the  un- 
broken sequence  of  development  between  antiquity  and 
modern  times.  Whereas  we  have  been  accustomed  to  the 
idea  of  the  sudden  rise  of  a  phenomenal  genius  in  the 


FIG.  187. — SCULPTURE  OF  ORVIETO  CATHEDRAL.    STORY  OF  THE  CREATION. 
Giovanni  Pisano  and  Scholars.     Detail  of  Fig.  186. 

Italian  art  of  the  later  thirteenth  century,  from  whom  all 
improvement  dated,  we  now  become  aware  of  a  more  grad- 
ual and  earlier  development  of  design  in  those  Italian  centers 
whose  relations  to  antiquity  and  its  Byzantine  survival  are 
already  attested  from  the  side  of  narrative  and  political  his- 
tory. It  is  a  constant  experience  in  history  that  one  center 
declines  while  another  takes  its  place  in  the  march  of  events. 
Thus  London  has  succeeded  Antwerp  and  Amsterdam, 
which  in  their  turn  succeeded  Venice,  as  Venice  had  once 


294 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


succeeded  to  Ravenna.  In  the  same  way  Florence  once 
supplanted  Pisa,  and  we  now  begin  to  see  that  Pisa  had 
again  had  her  predecessors  in  Troja,  Bari,  Amalfi,  and 
Salerno. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  Pisa  took  precedence  of  every 

state  in  South  or  Cen- 
tral  Italy.  Her  re- 
lations of  commerce 
with  the  Byzantine 
Empire  had  been  so 
intimate  since  the 
eleventh  century  that 
the  Byzantine  emperor 
had  then  contributed 
funds  toward  the  erec- 
tion  of  her  great 
cathedral  and  that  the 
duke,  or  doge,  of  Pisa 
had  also  then  been 
lord  of  Athens. 

The  first  develop- 
ment of  North  Italian 
sculpture  preceded  by 
about  forty  years  the 

art  of  Giotto,  and  undoubtedly  made  a  distinct  break  with 
the  formalism  of  the  Byzantine  style  and  the  crude  barba- 
rism of  the  more  native  art  of  Italy  (Fig.  132).  The  bronze 
doors  of  the  Pisa  Cathedral,  made  in  the  twelfth  century  by 
Bonanus,  the  architect  of  the  Leaning  Tower,  are  an  exam- 
ple of  the  high-water  mark  of  earlier  design  in  Central  and 
North  Italy.  It  was  distinctly  a  great  and  phenomenal 
genius,  Niccolo  of  Pisa,  who  resurrected  the  arts  of  form  in 
Italy.  His  epoch-making  work  is  the  pulpit  of  the  Pisa 


FIG.  188.— GIOTTO.    TUBAL  CAIN. 
Florence  Campanile. 


Italian   Gothic  Sculpture. 


295 


Baptistery  (1261).*  A  somewhat  later  work  of  the  same 
class  by  Niccolo  is  in  the  Cathedral  of  Siena.  The  Siena 
pulpit  is  equally  beautiful  as  a  work  of  decoration,  but  the 
individual  compositions  are  somewhat  less  simple  and  pow- 
erful. The  participation  of  Giovanni,  the  son  of  Niccolo, 
and  of  other  pupils,  in  this  work  will  explain  this  change  of 
style.  As  illustrated  by  the  views  (Figs.  184,  185),  the 
style  of  Niccolo  was  founded  on  the  antique.  Some  of  the 
Greco- Roman  sarcophagi  from  which  he  made  his  studies 
are  still  preserved  in 
Pisa.  His  work,  how- 
ever, is  simple  and 
naive,  original  and 
profoundly  thoughtful 
— as  distinct  from  a 
mechanical  and  servile 
dependence  on  antique 
art.  His  son  Giovanni 
followed  in  his  foot- 
steps with  somewhat 
more  distinct  relations 
to  the  northern  sculp- 
ture of  his  time. 
Among  the  many 
beautiful  works  attrib- 
uted to  him  and  his 
scholars  we  may  men- 
tion the  reliefs  of  the 
Orvieto  Cathedral  fa£ade,  executed  with  assistance  of  his 
scholars.  It  is  possible  that  tradition  is  at  fault  in  this  at- 
tribution and  that  Siena,  which  furnished  the  architect  of 
this  cathedral,  also  produced  its  sculptors.  These  reliefs 

*The  Baptistery  itself  is  seen  in  Fig.  127. 


FlG.  189. — LUCCA  DELLA  ROBBIA.   PYTHAGORAS 

[ARITHMETIC]  .     Florence  Campanile. 


296 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


cover  the  surfaces  of  the  piers  which  separate  the  portals 
and  which  form  the  angles  of  the  front.  (Compare  Figs. 
1 86,  187,  165).  Taken  in  mass  they  are  the  most  impor- 
tant work  of  medieval  architectural  sculpture  to  be  found 
in  Italy.  The  subjects  are  taken  from  the  story  of  the 

creation,  the  life  of 
Abraham,  the  Last 
Judgment,  etc.  There 
was  an  entire  school 
of  Pisan  artists  largely 
employed  throughout 
Central  Italy  in  the 
fourteenth  century. 
The  bronze  doors  by 
Andrea  of  Pisa,  made 
for  the  Florence  Bap- 
tistery, are  among  the 
important  productions 
of  this  school.  The 
reliefs  from  the  designs 
by  Giotto,  on  the  bell 
tower  (campanile)  *of 
the  Florence  Cathe- 
dral, are  beautiful  ex- 
amples of  Italian  Gothic  thought  and  science  (Figs.  188, 
189).  Besides  these  we  .must  name  the  little  reliefs  on 
the  tabernacle  of  the  Oratory  of  Or  San  Michele  in  Flor- 
ence. These  are  the  work  of  Orcagua,  and  must  be 
rated  among  the  most  precious  survivals  of  fourteenth 
century  art. 

In  North  Italy  the  tombs  of  the  Scaligers  at  Verona  are 
world-famous  monuments,  but  rather  for  their  historic  asso- 
ciations and  bold  composition  than  for  any  refinement  of 


FIG.  190. — THE  MADONNA. 
Giovanni  Pisano. 


Prato. 


Italian   Gothic  Sculpture.  297 

execution  or  design.  The  remarkable  sculptures  on  the 
angles  of  the  Doge's  Palace  at  Venice  are  not  to  be 
omitted  even  from  a  condensed  catalogue  of  Italian  Gothic 
sculpture.  These  represent  the  Judgment  of  Solomon, 
Adam  and  Eve,  and  the  Sin  of  Noah. 

Aside  from  the  works  of  special  note  above  catalogued 
the   Italian    Gothic  tomb  sculpture  could   be  quoted  for 


FIG.  191. — THE  CAMPO  SANTO.    Pisa. 

a  large  number  of  monuments,  but  few  of  these  have  great 
importance. 

The  Italian  fourteenth  century  was  not  prolific  in  works 
of  sculpture.  The  art  of  fresco  was  more  popular  and 
more  affected,  but  all  that  was  done  in  sculpture  was  pro- 
foundly significant  for  the  development  of  the  Renaissance 
which  followed  in  the  fifteenth  century.  Before  closing 


FIG.  192. — THE  MUNICIPAL  PALACE.     Prato. 


298 


Italian   Gothic  Sculpture. 


299 


our  account  of  the  medieval  art  on  the  threshold  of  this 
"rebirth,"*  we  may  turn  a  moment's  attention  to  the 
secular  buildings  of  the  Italian  Gothic. 

Among  the  most  interesting  Italian  buildings  are  its 
secular  monuments,  the  great  town  halls  and  civic  palaces, 
especially  interesting 
as  reminders  of  the 
active  municipal  life  to 
which  the  Italian  art 
owed  so  much  of  its 
greatness.  This  was 
especially  fostered  by 
the  public  spirit  of  the 
citizens  and  by  the 
rivalries  of  the  various 
republics,  each  vying 
with  the  other  to  pro- 
duce some  unique 
work  of  art. 

The  Palazzo  Vecchio 
(old  palace)  of  Flor- 
ence is  the  most  famous 


FIG.  193.— THE  MUNICIPAL  PALACE.    Volt-ra. 


of  these  buildings.  /'Be- 
side it  stands  ine  grand 
Loggia  de-:  Lanzi  (the  Portico  of  the  Lancet— n>  so-called 
in  later  days,  after  it  was  occupied  *>  tne  body-guard 
of  th'  grand  dukes  of  Tuscany^  rhe  town  halls  of  Vol- 
ter-a  and  Prato  —  char^  *lstlc  examples  of  these  mas- 
,ive  and  Stress-like  -  actures>  w»ich  literally  were  town 
fortress.  Vllilt  t  m™st*nd  ^  stormy  outbreaks  and 
civic  convulsion  "J  which  the  overflowing  vigor  of  these 
municipalities  founu'ent.  The  massive  simplicity  of  these 

~^rhe  English  transition  the  word  Renaissance. 


3oo 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


buildings  is  worthy  of  all  praise.  They  are  direct  continua- 
tions of  similar  structures  of  older  time  and  only  in  the 
arch  of  doors  or  windows  do  we  find  the  means  of  dating 


are 


FIG.  194.— THE  PALAZZO  CA  D'ORG     Venice. 

them  u  D0int  of  style.     Splendid  buildings  oixthis  class 

also  found  iL^na,  Perugia,  and  Piacenza. 

In  marked  contk^  to  these  buildings  are  thfe 

palaces  of  the  Venetian- ^^jc       Here  a  pleasure^ 
and  opulent  life  flf^h^,r>£*«*y  day.     The  string 
constitution  of  Venice  saved  her    *^e  anai^y  which  so 
often  befell  the  republics  and  petty  c       ^        ot  ^ 
and  her  buildings  have  none  of  the ^mmou^^    ^ 
of  those  just  described.     The  palaces  oiler  nob]es  ^ 
taken  in  mass,  the  earliest  decorati  e  ^ate  bui]dfng.s  ^ 


Italian   Gothic  Scidpture. 


301 


Europe.  The  same  purely  decorative  use  of  Gothic  forms, 
otherwise  noted  in  the  Italian  Gothic,  is  also  apparent 
here.  The  Palace  of  the  Doge  at  Venice  is  the  most 
splendid  example  of  the  style.  In  its  present  form  the 
exterior  fa£ades  date  from  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
court  shows  an  architecture  dating  from  various  periods 
of  the  Renaissance. 

Various  references  in  foregoing  pages  (229,  257,   279, 
288)  have  indicated  that  medieval  thought  and  culture, 

and     consequently 

medieval  art,  were  dis- 
placed in  the  sixteenth 
century  by  a  move- 
ment of  Italian  origin 
known  as  the  Renais- 
sance. The  beginnings 
of  modern  history, 
which  for  Northern 
Europe  are  first  dis- 
tinctly visible  in  the 
sixteenth  century, 
must  all  be  sought  in 
Italy  by  any  correct 
philosophy  of  history. 
Hence  it  will  be  ob- 
served that  the  history 
of  medieval  art,  as 
sketched  in  this  book,  closes  a  century  earlier  for  Italy 
than  for  Northern  Europe.  We  have  carried  the  history 
of  the  northern  Gothic  architecture,  sculpture,  and  paint- 
ing as  far  as  the  sixteenth  century,  but  for  Italy  we  have 
drawn  the  line  at  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
Strictly  speaking,  we  cannot,  however,  specify  a  Renais- 


FIG.  195. — PALAZZO  FRANCETTI.    Venice. 


302 


Roman  and  Medieval  Art. 


sance  art  in  architecture  or  painting  before  1425.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Italian  Gothic  period  is  full  of  anticipations 
and  forecasts  of  the  approaching  revolution.  In  Italian 
architecture  the  repugnance  to  the  northern  Gothic  has  this 
significance.  In  sculpture  the  Italian  Gothic  already  ex- 


FIG.  196.— DETAIL  FROM  THE  DOGE'S  PALACE.    Venice. 

hibits,  with  Niccolo  of  Pisa,  the  antique  influence  which  is 
characteristic  of  Renaissance  art.  The  awakening  interest 
in  visible  nature,  as  distinct  from  the  traditional  repetition 
of  religious  formulas  in  art,  which  is  an  equally  character- 
istic phase  of  the  Renaissance,  is  already  distinctly  visible 
in  the  painting  of  Giotto  and  his  period. 


INDEX. 


Adoration  of  the  Lamb  (Van  Eycks' 
painting),  254. 

Aisles,  of  churches,  origin,  166,  167. 

Aix-la-Chape1le,  Charlemagne's  chapel, 
161. 

Alatri,  walls,  47. 

Alcazar,  Seville,  182  ;  Fig.  116. 

Aldobrandini  Wedding  (Roman  fresco), 
94- 

Alhambra,  the,  182;  Fig.  in. 

Amiens  Cathedral,  223,  236;  Fig.  145. 

Amphitheaters,  Roman,  86  ;  Fig.  53. 

Andrea  of  Pisa,  296. 

Antwerp  Cathedral,  236. 

Appian  Way,  104  ;  Fig.  68. 

Apse,  origin,  166,  167  ;  Gothic  develop- 
ment, 239. 

Aqueducts,  Roman,  82,  83;  Figs.  34,  38. 

Arab  art,  178-184  ;  derived  from  Byzan- 
tine, 181  ;  ornamental  system,  181  ; 
minarets,  181. 

Arabesque  ornament,  origin,  181. 

Arch,  Etruscan,  36  ;  Roman,  82-87,  125  ; 
of  Constantine,  117,  165;  of  Drusus, 
123;  of  Septimius  Severus,  in  (Fig. 
52);  of  Titus,  113;  arch  and  column 
(Byzantine),  168,  169;  Arab  "horse- 
shoe," 182;  Arab  pointed,  182;  Ro- 
manesque, 195-204  ;  Gothic,  221-225  I 
Tudor,  238. 

Architecture  (see  Roman,  Early  Chris- 
tian, Byzantine,  Romanesque,  and 
Gothic). 

Arena  Chapel,  Padua,  287  ;  Figs.  173-180. 

Arian  Baptistery  (Ravenna),  183. 

Aries,  86,  135,  149. 

Armenian  churches,  162. 

Assisi,  Church  of  St.  Francis,  260,  283, 
284,  287  ;  Fig.  170. 

Bamberg  Cathedral,  193. 


I  Baptistery,  churches,  182 ;  of  St.  John 
Lateran,  170;  of  Pisa,  244,  294;  of 
Florence,  296. 

Basilica,  pagan,  85  ;  Christian,  166-169; 
origin  of  the  term,  169  ;  of  St.  Peter, 
Rome,  133  ;  of  St.  Paul,  Rome,  133  ;  of 
Constantine,  in,  166  (Fig.  51). 

Baths,  Roman,  83-85;  of  Agrippa,  120; 
of  Caracalla,  113,  118,  123  (frontispiece 
and  Fig.  50). 

Battle  of  Issus  (mosaic),  93. 

Bayeux,  churches  of,  193. 

Beauvais  Cathedral,  223. 

Bell  towers,  169,  202,  263. 

Berlin  Museum,  98. 

Bethlehem,  Church  of  the  Manger,  132, 
161,168;  Fig.  86. 

Bologna,  museum,  21  ;  San  Petronio,  223. 

Bronze  Age,  22;  utensils,  ancient,  34, 
95  (Fig-  60)  ;  doors,  290,  291,  294. 

Brussels,  Church  of  St.  Gudule,  236. 

Bucchero  ware,  30. 

Burgos  Cathedral,  223,  236. 

Buttress,  Gothic,  229-234  ;  flying,  232. 

Byzantine  art,  149-160;  adjective  ex- 
plained, 151  ;  mosaic,  154  ;  sculpture, 
159,  160;  painting,  159  :  duration  of  the 
style,  185  ;  art  displaced  by  Italian,  282. 

Caen,  churches,  193. 

Caere,  44. 

Cairo,  180. 
j  Campagna,  the,  123. 

Campanile,  263. 

I  Campo  Santo,  Pisa,  264,  287 ;  Figs.  181, 
191. 

Canterbury  Cathedral,  236,  239. 

Capitals,  classic,  36,  82  ;  Byzantine,  174; 
Arab,  180;  Romanesque,  205;  Gothic, 
234- 

Capitoline  Hill,  113. 


303 


304 


Index. 


Carthage,  founded,  27  ;  wars  with  Rome, 

64. 

Catacomb  paintings,  133;  Fig.  85. 
Cathedral  (see  Byzantine,  Romanesque, 

and  Gothic). 
Cervetri,  44. 

Chartres  Cathedral,  236,  250;  Fig.   152. 
Chiusi  Museum,  43. 
Choir,  origin,  166,  167;  Gothic,  166,   167, 

239;  Romanesque,  203. 
Christian  art,  causes  of  early  inferiority, 

143-148. 
Christianity,  in  the  Roman  Empire,  128; 

antagonism  to  pagan  art,  129  ;  ideal  of 

its  early  art,  129. 
Church  of  the  Manger,  Bethlehem,  132, 

161,168;  Fig.  86. 
Cimabue,  281,  283  ;   Fig.  171. 
Clerestory,  240. 

Cloaca  Maxima,  37,  63  ;  Fig.  29. 
Coins,  Greek,  51  ;  Fig.  20. 
Cologne  Cathedral,  223,  236,  241,   256; 

Figs.  133,  134. 

Colosseum,  86,  115;  Figs.  53,  77. 
-Column,  of  Trajan,    108  (Fig.   71);     of 

Marcus  Aurelius,  121. 
Columns,  "  engaged,"  88;  combined 

with  arches,   168  ;  distinguished  from 

piers,  198. 

Composite  order,  36,  82  ;  Fig.  49. 
Copts,  influence  on  Arab  art,  181. 
Cordova,  Mosque  of,  182. 
Corinthian  order,  81. 
Corneto,  23;    museum,  43;    tomb,    46 

(Fig.  17). 

Cortona  Museum,  43. 
Decadence  of  Roman  art,  126-131. 
Decoration  (see  Ornament). 
"  Decorative  "  English  Gothic,  237. 
Diptychs,  136;  Fig.  91. 
Dome,  Roman,  82,  85,  172 ;  in  Christian 

churches,    170-172;     Byzantine,    172; 

Mohammedan,  180;  Romanesque,  202. 
Duccio,  281  ;  Fig.  172. 
Durham  Cathedral,  193. 
Early  Christian  art,  125-177. 
"  Early  English  "  Gothic,  237. 
East  Jordan  ruins,  70  (Fig.  39);  churches, 

162. 


Easter  candelabra,  290,  292. 

Egesta,  ruins,  52  ;  Fig.  22. 

Egyptian  influence  on  ancient  Italian 
art,  27,  31. 

Enamels,  Byzantine  and  Romanesque, 
207;  Fig.  131. 

"  Engaged  "  columns,  88,  165. 

Entablatures,  89. 
|  Etruscan  art,  26-47. 
j  Fallen,  walls,  46  ;  Fig.  18.  « 

"  Flamboyant  "  Gothic,  238. 

Flemish  painting,  253-256. 

Florence,  museum,  41  ;  cathedral  dome, 
172  ;  cathedral,  261,  267  (Fig.  166); 
municipal  architecture,  299. 

Forum,  Roman,  109  (Fig.  72)  ;  of  Nerva, 
"3  (Fig-  73). 

Freiberg  sculpture,  194. 

Frescoes,  Roman,  91  ;  Romanesque,  194, 
206;  Italian,  157,  271,  295. 

Furniture,  Roman,  95. 

Gable  ornament,  Roman  and  Renais- 
sance, 89;  Gothic,  234. 

Galla  Placidia  tomb  (mosaics),  156. 

Gargoyles,  242  ;  Fig.  150. 

Gems,  Etruscan,  35  ;  Roman,  103  (Fig. 
67). 

Gerona  Cathedral,  223. 

Giotto,  281,  284-287 ;  Figs.  173-180. 

Giovanni  Pisano,  295  ;  Figs.  187.  190. 

Giralda,  the  (Seville),  182. 

Girgenti,  ruins,  52;   Fig.  23. 

Glass,  Roman,  97,  137  ;  Fig.  31. 

Gothic  art,  208-302 ;  its  architecture  of 
French  origin,  209 ;  period  specified, 
210;  word  explained,  210;  vaultings, 
221,  225,  229;  cathedral  dimensions, 
223  ;  piers,  225,  227  ;  buttress,  229-232  ; 
pinnacles,  232 ;  capitals,  234 ;  orna- 
ment, 234 ;  great  cathedrals  speci- 
fied, 236;  distinctions  of  style  and 
period,  237-239  ;  cathedral  plan,  239  ; 
spires,  240  ;  picturesque  qualities,  241- 
246 ;  gargoyles,  242 ;  sculpture,  229, 
247-250,  289;  painting  (Flemish  and 
German),  250-256;  stained  glass,  251; 
municipal  and  domestic  architec- 
ture, 258,  259;  castles,  258;  fortifi- 
cations, 259  ;  Italian,  259-269,  299,  302. 


Index. 


305 


Greek  colonies  in  Italy,  47-56  ;  influence 

on  Etruscan  art,  33-35 ;  influence  on 

Roman  art,  72. 

Grotesque  ornament  (Romanesque),  205. 
Guild  halls  (Gothic),  258;  Figs.  159,  160. 
Herculaneum,  96. 
Hereford  Cathedral,  194;  Fig.  122. 
Hildesheim,     silver    find,    96;    bronze 

cathedral  doors,  149,  194 ;    font,  194  ; 

churches,  193  (Fig.  121). 
Hut-urns,  23  ;  Fig.  2. 
Iconoclasts,  159. 

Ionic  capital,  origin,  44  ;  order,  81. 
Irish  art,  160. 
Italian  art,  early  ancient,  24-56  ;    Gothic 

architecture,    258-269;   painting,    270- 

287  ;  sculpture,  288-302. 
Ivory  carvings,  136;  Figs.  91,  130,  132, 

154- 
Jerusalem,    Mosque   el  Aksa,   178  (Fig. 

112)  ;  Mosque  of  Omar,  170,  178  (Fig. 

"3). 

Julius  Caesar,  65,  125. 
Kolner  Dombild,  256. 
Laon  Cathedra],  236. 
Last  Judgment,  fresco  in  Pisa,  287. 
Lateran  Museum,  135. 
Leaning  Tower  of  Pisa,  246  ;  Fig.  127. 
Lichfield  Cathedral,  Figs.  148,  153. 
Lincoln  Cathedral,  223  ;  Fig.  136. 
Lotus,  21. 

Louvre  Museum,  99. 
Lucca,    textile     manufactures     derived 

from  oriental,  183  ;   St.  Michael's,  205 

(Fig.  129). 

Mainz  Cathedral,  193;  Fig.  123. 
Maison  Carree  of  Nimes,  78  ;    Fig.  44. 
Majolica,  Arab  origin,  183. 
Master-masons  of  the  Middle  Age,  219, 

243- 

Melrose  Abbey,  221  ;  Fig.  137. 
Memling,  Hans,  254  ;  Figs.  156,  157. 
Milan  Cathedral,  223,  229,  236,  267,  288 ; 

Figs.  141,  164. 
Minarets,  181. 
Mohammedan  art,  178-184. 
Moresque  ornament,  175. 
Mosaics,  Roman,  93;  Byzantine,  154-159, 

175 ;  F'gs-  55,  58,  95,  96,  97,  98,  99- 


Mosques,  origin  and  character,  178-182  ; 

of  Omar,  162,  170,  183;  el  Aksa,  178; 

of  Cairo,  180  ;  of  Cordova,  182. 
Mullions,  228. 

Naples  Museum,  75,  76,  92.  93,  95,  99. 
Nave,    origin,    166,    167;    Romanesque, 

203  ;  Gothic,  239. 
New  York  Museum,  29,  98. 
Niccolo  of  Pisa,  207,  289,  294,  295;  Figs. 

184,  185. 
Nimes,  78,  86. 

Norman  style  (so-called),  19*3,  194,  204. 
Notre  Dame,  Cathedral  of,  236;    Fig. 

150. 

Noyon  Cathedral,  236. 
Oratories,  early  Irish,  161. 
Oriental  influence  in  Italian  art,  28,  57. 
Origin  of  Mediterranean  civilization,  18. 
Ornament,  Roman,  87,  103  ;  Byzantine, 

174-177  ;  Arab,  180-184  ;    Romanesque, 

205  ;  Gothic,  234. 
Orvieto,    museum,  43;    cathedral,    261, 

263;  reliefs,  295;  Figs.  165,  186,  187. 
Padua.  Arena  Chapel,  287  ;   Figs.  173- 

180. 
Paestum,  ruins,  53,  54;    Figs.  24,  25,  26, 

27. 
Painting,     Roman,     91-94;      catacombs 

(early  Christian),  133-136  ;  Byzantine, 

159  ;  Romanesque,  206  ;  Gothic  (Flem- 
ish   and    German),   250-256;    Italian, 

270-287. 
Palaces  of  the  Caesars,  113  (Fig.  74) ;  of 

Diocletian,  85,  168. 
Palermo  Cathedral,  183. 
Palma  Cathedral,  223. 
Palmyra  ruins,  89. 
Pantheon,  119,  128;  Fig.  81. 
"  Perpendicular"  Gothic,  237. 
Persecutions,  Christian,  127. 
Perugia  Museum,  43. 
Peterborough  Cathedral,  194;  Fig.  120. 
Petra,  rock  tombs,  90. 
Phenician  influence  in  Italy,  27. 
Piers,   defined,   168 ;    Romanesque,   195, 

197;  Gothic,  225. 
Pinnacles,  Gothic,  232. 
Pisa,   cathedral  dome,    172 ;    cathedral, 

193,  205  (Figs.   127,  128)  ;    baptistery, 


3°6 


Index. 


244 ;  Leaning  Tower,  246 ;  Campo 
Santo,  264,  287  (Figs.  181,  191)  ;  fres- 
coes, 287  ;  baptistery  pulpit,  295. 

Pointed  arch,  Arab,  182 ;  Gothic,  221- 
225. 

Polledrara  tomb,  30. 

Pompeii,  90-97,  106,  107. 

Pont  du  Card,  105  ;  Fig.  34. 

Porta  Maggiore,  122. 

Poi'tland  vase,  98. 

Pottery,  Roman,  97. 

Prehistoric  age  and  art,  17-19,  161. 

Pyramid  of  Caius  Cestius,  122. 

Ravenna,  sarcophagi,  135;  history,  146  ; 
classic  decadence,  152  ;  exarchate,  152 ; 
mosaics,  156  ;  churches,  162-167,  I7°- 

Regulini-Galassi  tomb,  30. 

Renaissance  style,  87,  237,  265,  266,  281, 
294,  295,301,302. 

Rheims  Cathedral,  236. 

Roads,  Roman,  104. 

Roman  art,  distinctions  of  period,  25; 
territories,  65  ;  architecture,  78-91  ; 
sculpture,  72-77,  98-103 ;  decorative 
art,  95-98;  painting,  91-94;  Forum, 
109  (Fig.  72)  ;  roads,  104;  art  deca- 
dence, 138;  Christian  period,  131-137. 

Romanesque  art,  185-207  ;  adjective  ex- 
plained, 195  ;  duration  and  period,  185; 
character,  187, 189;  cathedrals  located, 
193  ;  frescoes,  194  ;  sculpture,  194-207  ; 
architecture,  195-205. 

Rouen,  Church  of  St.  Ouen,  236. 

Russian  art,  derived  from  Byzantine, 
159, 185. 

St.  Denis  Cathedral,  211. 

St.  Mark's  (Venice),  154,  170,  175. 

St.  Paul's  (London)  dome,  172. 

St.  Peter's  dome,  172. 

St.  Sophia,  Constantinople,  162,  170,  171, 
175,  178;  Figs.  107,  109. 

Salisbury  Cathedral,  223. 

Samian  pottery  ware,  97. 

Samnites,  art,  28,  57  ;  wars,  60. 

San  Apollinare  in  Classe  (Ravenna),  \ 
156,  165;  Figs.  103,  105. 

San  Apollinare  Nuovo  (Ravenna),  156, 
165  ;  Figs.  102,  104. 

San  Vitale  (Ravenna),  165, 170  ;  Fig.  106.  ! 


Sarcophagi,  Etruscan,  35,  41  ;  Roman, 
101  ;  Christian,  135  (Figs.  88,  89,  90). 

Scaligers,  tombs  of  the,  296. 

School  of  Cologne,  253,  256. 

Sculpture,  Etruscan,  29-43  ;  Roman,  72- 
77,  83,  84,  98-126;  early  Christian,  135, 
Byzantine,  159-160;  Romanesque,  194, 
206;  Gothic,  247-250;  Italian  Gothic, 
294-302. 

Segovia,  aqueduct,  82  ;  Fig.  38. 

Selinus,  ruins,  52  ;  Fig.  21. 

Seville,  the  Alcazar,  182  (Fig.  116) ;  the 
Giralda,  182. 

Sicily,  a  seat  of  Arab  art,  183. 

Siena  Cathedral,  261,  268  (Fig.  169); 
pulpit,  by  Niccolo  Pisano,  295. 

Slade  Collection  (glass),  98. 

Spalatro,  85,  168. 

Speyer  Cathedral,  193  ;  Fig.  125. 

Spires,  origin,  169;  Gothic,  240,  263. 

Stained  glass,  251,  271. 

Steeples,  origin,  169. 

Stonehenge,  161. 

Strassburg  Cathedral,  250. 

Taormina,  ruins,  53. 

Tarquinii,  43,  44. 

Temples,  Roman,  78-81  ;  Maison  Carres, 
78  (Fig.  44);  Fortuna  Virilis,  78,  119 
(Fig.  46);  Antoninus  and  Faustina,  78, 
in  (Fig.  47) ;  Assisi,  79 (Fig. 48);  Pola, 
78;  Tivoli,  78;  Vesta,  79,  in,  119; 
Olympian  Jupiter,  79;  Baalbek,  79; 
Jerash,  79;  Castor  and  Pollux,  in  ; 
Concord,  in  ;  Mars  Ultor,  113. 

Theater  of  Marcellus,  119  ;  Fig.  80. 

Tiles,  Arab,  184. 

Tomb  of  Caecilia  Metella,  107  (Fig.  69); 
of  Hadrian,  107  (Fig.  70)  ;  of  Eurysa- 
ces,  123. 

Trajan's  Column,  108;  Fig.  71. 

Transept,  Romanesque,  202  ;  Gothic, 
240. 

Triforium,  240. 

Triptychs,  159,  250  ;  Fig.  154. 

Triumph  of  Death,  Pisan  fresco,  287. 

Triumphal  arches,  86  ;  Fig.  52. 

Tudor  arch,  238. 

Tuscan  order,  36,  81 ;  Fig.  30. 

Utensils,  Roman,  95. 


Index. 


307 


Van  der  Weyden,  Roger,  254-256 ;  Fig. 

158. 

Van  Eycks,  the,  254-256  ;  Fig.  155. 
Vases,  Greek,  49,  50;  Figs.  10,  19. 
Vaulting,  Romanesque,  166,  195,  199, 

200  ;  Gothic,  221-225,  229. 
Venice,  palaces,  259,  300  (Figs.  194,  195); 

Palace  of  the  Doge,  301  (Fig.  196);  see 

also  St.  Mark's. 
Verona,  amphitheater,  86  ;  cathedral,  267. 


Volterra,  museum,  41 ;   Etruscan  gate- 
way,  Fig.   12;    town  hall,  299    (Fig. 

i93)- 

Wechselburg,  sculpture,  194. 
Weights,  Roman,  95  ;  Fig.  61. 
Wells  Cathedral,  Fig.  135. 
Westminster  Abbey,  236. 
Windows,  Gothic,  228,  229,  250. 
Worms  Cathedral,  193  ;  Fig.  124. 
York  Cathedral,  223. 


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